Übermenschlich: Pulver und Sand (II) consists of a pile of sand and a simple action: spraying the pile with water. The artists stands motionless in the flow of sludge as an immovable object, slowly engulfing him in a landslide. During the performance visitors are invited to participate in either fighting against the ongoing erosion, or facilitating it. The result is a playful, clear-cut and poetic act that calls spectators to both physically and cognitively engage with our environment.
The work is a visualization of the human endeavors to control, direct and exploit the natural world. Pulver und Sand illustrates the joys as well as the disillusionments associated with the shaping of our surroundings, representing the fleeting character of mankind’s futile battle against the ever-changing landscape — a struggle that is omnipresent at sites such as the Port of Antwerp, where the first iteration of the performance took place.
It is the same context that makes this work particularly relevant in the setting of Venice, where natural processes are constantly being counteracted, however desperate or vain that may seem. The performance — pumping up water from the lagoon onto a locally sourced pile of sand— as well as the end-result will become a living testimony of the precariousness of the city we assume to have been built for the ages.
The Übermenschlich (literally ‘beyond humanly’) series by Lodewijk Heylen are an expression of a research project that brings together the multitude of prevalent attempts to transcend the human condition through the development of technologies, systems, structures and rules. The project has had previous artistic developments involving sandblasting, explosive quarrying, waterjet cutting and other earthworks.
