De onleesbare atlas van de Watersportbaan - residenten CAMPUS atelier

Getting to know a place. Learning how to share a place. Finding your way. You sit on a bench. Someone sits down next to you and, through their stories, you get to know a piece of the place. Tomorrow, you are sitting on that bench behind the bush to the left of the third block. The day after, you are sitting by the roadside, ten steps before the bus shelter, with a small playground behind you. Along the way, you keep meeting people who show you the space around you.

n this project, artists Renée Leerman, Laure Machtelinckx, Ella De Pourque, and Elias Peeters attempt to read the Watersportbaan neighborhood—and make it legible—during their residency at CAMPUSatelier. Along the way, they are confronted with a neighborhood that resists easy definition. They let go of truth, abandon the ambition of designing a legible map, and embrace the fact that they are working on an unreadable atlas. In a fictional guided tour through the neighborhood, real stories are woven with stubborn myths, meaningful interventions are mirrored in mundane spatial modifications, and a picnic blanket is rolled out large enough to welcome the entire neighborhood.

This project is made possible with the support of the City of Ghent and arts center VIERNULVIER.