It should be the eye-catcher on the tenth anniversary of Horst Arts & Music: a gigantic work by the Greek artist Theo Triantafyllidis is projected on the monumental cooling towers on the edge of the Asiat park in Vilvoorde. “We needed 350,000 lumens for the projection. If you want to compare: a cinema typically uses 20,000 lumens. They may have done this before in Dubai or Las Vegas, but certainly not here in Vilvoorde,” says Tijs Lammar of the Antwerp video art gallery Tick tack, not without pride. He coordinated the projection together with the festival organization.
From 10 p.m., dancers at the electronic music and arts festival can marvel at surreal scenes. A spider weaves a web over the cooling tower. Butterflies flutter along a meter-high purple loosestrife, the kind of weed that proliferates around rugged places such as this former military domain. A poisonous purple organism in the background is a reminder of the pollution associated with canal zones. The artist found the 3D-like environments – a nod to gaming culture – in his archives, and discovered that they fit surprisingly well with the Asiat site.
© Eline Willaert
Since Thursday and until Saturday, around 11,500 visitors have gathered there every day, mostly in their twenties and thirties who hope to lose themselves in the beats of one of the 93 DJ sets. There are no really big names among them. Dubstep pioneers Skream and Benga, house DJ Ben UFO and techno DJ Juliana Huxtable are strong names in their niche, but you can hardly call them superstar DJs.
Own principles
It doesn’t seem to matter to the visitors. For the first time, Horst Arts & Music is completely sold out. However, it comes with a price tag: 67 euros for a day ticket, 140 euros for three days. Alex Van Lakwijk (29) considers it an advantage that there are no major crowd pullers on the bill. “I think it’s great that they give lesser-known DJs a big stage. They start from their principles instead of looking for the biggest headliner to attract people,” he says. The mass is therefore more evenly distributed over the site. “It’s not like other festivals where you all want to see that big name at the same time at a certain hour.” Céline Ennekenes (27), a friend, supports him in this. “Every stage has its own vibe. You wander around and stick to what you like. We don’t go to the music, it comes to us.” “Apart from Bibi Seck, I don’t know anyone from the line-up. I like to be surprised,” says Brad Goyvaerts (31), a third friend.
© Koen Bauters
“We like to play with expectations,” says Toon Timmerman, the festival’s communications manager. He himself will perform on Saturday under his DJ name Timmerman alongside the Belgian DJ Sixsixsixties at Le Soleil Rouge, a spacious outdoor square in the shadow of an enormous spherical red mirror. Compatriots Bibi Seck, Fais Le Beau and Lola Haro are also given major stages. Conversely, well-known international names can seek intimacy. For example, the British Ben UFO will take place behind the decks twice on Saturday: in the early evening on the smallest stage and four hours later as a closing event on the largest stage, the Ring.
The Ring, a circular yellow construction by the Brussels-Malinese architectural firm Piovenefabi, is the latest addition to the site. The dancers instinctively find their way to the center of the arena-shaped skeleton. The designers found the material for the steel construction in an old roof that was still in the same place last year. After the festival it becomes a playground where children can enjoy themselves in the summer. A Vilvoorde art academy will paint the square and the white blocks on which festival goers are currently resting will become permanent seating areas.
A corner and a side
According to Mathias Staelens, co-founder of the festival, it nicely illustrates how the festival is increasingly succeeding in attuning itself to its environment. Onkruid, the organization behind the festival, will operate the park until 2032. The former army barracks is therefore constantly undergoing transformation. In the five years since the organization settled here, a climbing gym, a skate park and a yoga studio have been added. A nightclub opened last winter and this summer there will be a permanent café on site. Next year the festival hopes to bridge the gap to the nature reserve on the other side of the canal. The rubble that is now released during the softening of the site – and that lies in heaps next to the stages – will be used to build walking paths.
© Koen Bauters
The organization has already won two prizes for these achievements at the Ultimas, the Flemish cultural prizes. In 2021 for his contribution to architecture and applied arts and this year for his cultural entrepreneurship. In addition to the commercial program, Onkruid has also founded a non-profit organization for the art program. An exhibition in the summer should make the park an attraction outside the festival weekend. Festival goers can already discover works from that programming here and there. Spectacles, such as projections on the cooling towers, are omitted. The aesthetic is rather rough, playful and imbued with the circular philosophy of the festival. “Had I not known it was art, I would have thought the festival would have just hung some streamers here,” comments a visitor dryly. Gateway to adventure, an installation by Sheila Hicks. The American textile artist reused colorful old textiles to brighten up the passage to the park.
© Koen Bauters
Around the corner, the installation by the Italian artist Luca Vanello can count on more appreciation. Branches with eerily white leaves hang in a small, dilapidated room. “It represents the difference between life and death, between chemistry and nature,” says visitor Aram Van Cauwenberghe (26) enthusiastically. “Through a chemical process, the artist stripped the leaves of tree branches of their color,” he was told. “Pretty nice, right?” His companion Lukas Van Nunen (26) nods in agreement. “It’s crazy that this is being tucked away in a corner. But that is also the great thing about the festival: that you find something in all those corners.”
