"the swansong of parking palace"
Pefomance 2010
Everyone lays "a first stone" at some point, yet few consider the stones that were displaced to make room for it. The Swan Song of Parking Place centers on the farewell to a building that has been a fixture in the Kortrijk cityscape for years. But it is not merely a farewell—it also serves as a poignant reflection on what is to come. We wanted this building to speak for itself. And, if it must speak, why not let it sing too?
A swan song, traditionally, is the last performance of an artist before leaving the stage. In this context, it’s a metaphor for the building’s final act. We were drawn to the resonance of Frank Sinatra’s iconic song "My Way," which topped the charts around the time the Parking Palace was constructed. The lyrics of the song tell the story of someone at the end of their life, looking back with mixed emotions—regrets for past mistakes, but also an acknowledgment that those mistakes have shaped them into the unique person they have become. This sense of reflection and closure mirrored our feelings about the building’s end.
Just like the figure in Sinatra’s song, the building too had lived its life—imperfect, yet defining the space around it, contributing to the city's history. In The Swan Song of Parking Place, we aimed to give the building its own proper farewell, celebrating its existence before it completely disappears, leaving only fragments of memory and relics in its wake. This farewell was not just to a structure, but to an era, a physical embodiment of the passing of time.
This project, in collaboration with Lies Caeyers, is an artistic meditation on memory, loss, and transformation. It invites the viewer to reflect on the spaces we inhabit and the transient nature of the built environment. Just as Sinatra’s song evokes nostalgia for both triumph and regret, The Swan Song of Parking Place reflects on the complexity of our relationship to the spaces that define our lives.