PIPE DREAMS
by Cornershop of Daydreams
The work begins with listening. Does the water running through the pipe have any knowledge? What can it remember? What does it dream? With these questions arrive a rush of stories and fantasies. Tales of the island on which the building sits, of the city beyond, of meadows, mattresses, strikes and sand under the paving stones. Pipe Dreams vocalises the building’s existential connection to the Leie, evoking movements, interactions and dynamics of water around the site. Among them, the sprinkling of long sheets of pale cloth bleaching in the sun, the vast meadows below being canalised and saturated, the textiles being wound and washed in vats, then wrung, the steam rolling off the hot containers before being expelled over the streets, dissipating softly into the city.
The Cornershop of Daydreams have been undertaking site-specific work at the toilets of this building. Here, the daydream is overheard through strange conversation. In one room, poetry of infrastructure is interwoven with newspaper items detailing historic flood events in the city of Kortrijk. In the adjacent room, scientific languages of chain reaction find curious overlaps with personal narratives of labour and daily life on Buda island and beyond. Between these dialogues, sentiments intrude: lost love, unsated frustration, grief, naive ambition. All the unresolved disquiet of the Budafabriek.
This project is realised during the residency programme in Kortrijk funded by Designregio
The Cornershop of Daydreams is an artist group consisting of Ila Colley, Yan Liang, and Metincan Guzel.
by Cornershop of Daydreams
The work begins with listening. Does the water running through the pipe have any knowledge? What can it remember? What does it dream? With these questions arrive a rush of stories and fantasies. Tales of the island on which the building sits, of the city beyond, of meadows, mattresses, strikes and sand under the paving stones. Pipe Dreams vocalises the building’s existential connection to the Leie, evoking movements, interactions and dynamics of water around the site. Among them, the sprinkling of long sheets of pale cloth bleaching in the sun, the vast meadows below being canalised and saturated, the textiles being wound and washed in vats, then wrung, the steam rolling off the hot containers before being expelled over the streets, dissipating softly into the city.
The Cornershop of Daydreams have been undertaking site-specific work at the toilets of this building. Here, the daydream is overheard through strange conversation. In one room, poetry of infrastructure is interwoven with newspaper items detailing historic flood events in the city of Kortrijk. In the adjacent room, scientific languages of chain reaction find curious overlaps with personal narratives of labour and daily life on Buda island and beyond. Between these dialogues, sentiments intrude: lost love, unsated frustration, grief, naive ambition. All the unresolved disquiet of the Budafabriek.
This project is realised during the residency programme in Kortrijk funded by Designregio
The Cornershop of Daydreams is an artist group consisting of Ila Colley, Yan Liang, and Metincan Guzel.
Photography: Jonas Verbeke
