Haseeb Ahmed

Haseeb Ahmed – Monument to the Monstrous Vortex Incident at Broekplein on April 6, 2024

• Broekplein, Vilvoorde

“No man steps into the same river twice for he is not the same, nor is the river.” In this perpetual flow of time and water, how can we set one experience apart from another? Haseeb Ahmed’s sculpture and light installation creates hope that fantastic past moments might reoccur and be shared with others.

On the night of April 6, Haseeb Ahmed was installing a stroboscopic apparatus under the Broekplein. It is designed to “flash the flow” and create distinct images of the Senne River and Woluwe River just after they emerge from their manmade subterranean paths. He noticed extremely erratic eddies forming under the bridge. The vortices began to interlock, increasing their collective intensity. Eventually the depth of the unified vortex brought something to the surface. A bodily form emerged; defying physics. It looked to be made of the murky water itself but also something or someone more.

This artwork commemorates the incident. The stroboscopic apparatus remains under the Broekplein, recreating the conditions of Ahmed’s April 6 encounter. Members of the public can look into the river and see if the same figure emerges from the water. The best view is from a lookout point over the Woluwe and Senne River confluence, located under the new square. A sculpture located there commemorates the incident. Ahmed asked 3D artists to recreate the scene based on his description. He carved these scenes and they are featured in the sculpture as reference for observers on the lookout for the monstrous vortex.

The sculpture at the lookout strobes at the same frequency as the lights under the bridge to synchronise the two places. Our experience is based on what we can sense, especially see. The strobe flashes every half second making our experience of time slower. This might yield more time to live and to see the extraordinary monstrous vortex witnessed by Ahmed on April 6.

About

Haseeb Ahmed (b. 1985) is an American artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He produces objects, installations, and films. His work is often collaborative and draws from the hard sciences, blending art and aeronautics, myth and technology, to create new narratives. Over the last 10 years Ahmed has structured his research-based artistic practice around fluid dynamics of wind and water. His focus is on what we can learn about our changing climates through the movements of the wind and the waters by what they carry, both physically and in terms of cultural associations throughout history.His work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp, BE) and has been exhibited internationally at the Göteborg Biennial (Göteborg, SE), Museum Bärengasse, (Zurich, CH), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, USA), De Appel (Amsterdam, NL), and the Frestas Triennial (Frestas, BR), amongst others