‘Bezet’ (meaning ‘Occupied’) is a ‘social artistic’ project, in which artists with intellectual limitations and artists from the ‘regular’ circuit engage in a confrontation with the public. Having come previously from the sidelines, they are able to take initiative themselves and occupy the Buda factory in the artistic heart of Courtrai, and create a refuge.

Embracing the space. The n.p.a. Wit.h invited Stefaan van Biesen to create a multimedia installation in the former entrance hall of the Buda factory. An artificial, horizontal, floating tree of 16 meters long reaches out towards the light of the entrance with its branches and welcomes the visitor. It acts like a funnel, drawing the visitor into the project. The tree, which in human consciousness represents the central archetype of the tree of life and duality, namely the connection between heaven and earth, also becomes a connection between inside and outside, between nature and culture. Its reaching branches are an invitation, a touch, a dialogue.

Skin on skin. Julia Beckx, Lindsy Mervylde and Rudy Callant, are three participants from the textile group the Zandberg of Harelbeke. They, under the guidance of Annemie Depaepe, have been making a new skin for the tree. The skin is being made from a variety of textiles, which the three have been working with for quite some time. The tactile aspect: the result of manual acts is an invisible thread in the construction of the work, during the course of which every participant is a part of a whole and has a substantial influence on the result.

In the transformation process during the project ‘Bezet’, the constantly changing character of a ‘second skin in the making’, is a metaphor for care and engagement. This tree is destined to generate new life.

Soundscape. A field is created by means of a soundscape. As a result, the spatial work produced engages in a process of osmosis between the space (the spot), the object (the tactile aspect), the industrial character of the workshop and the concept of cooperation, which is aimed at becoming a processual, socially inspired work of art, coming into being thanks to the work of several people.

The soundscape consists of a repetitive sound of a tree being cut down. The noise is now and then manipulated electronically and is complemented by digital percussion, during which an (industrially ambient) sound landscape blends with the human voice of the poet Geert Vermeire.

The imagined word. For the Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Josef Wittgenstein (Vienna 1889 – Cambridge 1951), poetry was a visual art, as words inspire images when pronounced in a changed context. This environmental music is very much present and has an intrinsic impact on the visitor as the binding agent between all the elements of the installation: sound as an immaterial element, a visual landscape.

Respect is my religion. On the wall at the other end of the installation in this entrance hall, one reads the text ‘respect is my religion’. This fact is often ignored, as there are always different voices within a certain tradition or culture, which are not, or hardly ever heard. As part of this cooperation between handicapped people, Stefaan van Biesen wants to indicate that living together requires mutual respect. It is a condition for creative integrity, for a caring cohabitation, which colours life in a humane way.

This respect reaches further than its elementary meaning. Respect requires also an appreciation of one’s environment, of one’s own body: a dwelling for the mind and the reflection. The corporality, the tactile aspect, behind this installation indicates a ‘feeling reflection’. We think with our body. Through our bodies we have a relationship with the world; there is no detachedness with what surrounds us.