NWA 868-A

After visiting the site, I was struck by how dystopian the idea of confining a human being, or any living being, within a defined space can be, and by how naturalised this act of confinement has become. I began thinking about what cannot be taken away from a person in terms of freedom. The first thing that came to mind was imagination, and particularly the kind of imagination that can emerge when looking through a window at the sky or beyond the limits of the space in which we are confined. The new detention centre has been designed with an awareness of the psychological impact of confinement. The cells are positioned so that the surrounding huge walls have as little visual impact as possible, allowing the view beyond the building to remain open. For me, imagination can be stimulated by many things, but looking at the sky, the stars and the moon can open an infinite journey of thought. This led me to introduce a meteorite: an object that has travelled through space for millions, perhaps billions, of years before eventually reaching Earth, where it came to rest, for now on the ceiling of a detention centre in Antwerp. Commissioned within New Detention Centre Antwerp, Regie der Gebouwen / Régie des Bâtiments. Project partners: Hortus Conclusus, Jan De Nul Group, EEG. With thanks to: Kris van't Hof, Ramon Huijbrechts, @royalacademyantwerp, @insitu_royalacademyantwerp, @stad_antwerpen, @jandenulgroup, @starstonebe