Welcome to the Nodenaysteen, a house on the Leie, near the St. Michael bridge, in the heart of Ghent. This is the seat of Allusion bv, an IT company with a mission to help others in their realisation of positively disruptive projects.
Nodenaysteen represents a working and meeting place for creative minds, a cross-pollination laboratory at the intersection of technology, art and social engagement. It aims to be an open space for collaborative projects, where creators can elaborate, demonstrate and relate their visions and ideas to the environment.
If you would like to stay informed about the ins and outs of Allusion and the activities that are being organised in the building, please e-mail us: contact@allusion.be.
The second phase of the renovation of the building will start in autumn 2021. We want to (re)build the building into a modern and accessible place with respect for the history of the location.
Nodenaysteen also wants to be a place where art is given a place at the three-cornered interface between technology, social engagement (and thus art) with the aim of generating connection.
A small selection of a couple of works from Damian The Grave, these works are a first version of a NFT / analog experiment developped by the Allusion team together with the artist.
A small selection of a couple of works from Damian The Grave, these works are a first version of a NFT / analog experiment developped by the allusion team together with the artist.
First appearance in the Nodenaysteen is a work from Inez Louwagie
The first image in the building's display window slash art gallery is by Inez Louagi. The artist, whose bio is "drawing, painting, doodling through life", is driven by the urge to tell a story. She does this with words and images. With her instinctive hand, she explores the thin line between intuitive, abstract and conceptual work, worked out with a mix of techniques, ranging from drawing and painting to sculpture. In her practice, she likes to bridge the gap between art and story with visual storytelling. Perfection does not interest the sculptor, it is the imperfections that make her work interesting.
In the work Amor Mundi, we see an almost explosive big bang, albeit with a poetic feel. We sense a tension between power and impotence, darkness and light, hope and melancholy, although her work is usually not uninhibited. Yet her oeuvre often contains underlying humour. Louagi is also fascinated by non-linear timelines and experiences and the way we are connected to lives before and after us. The sculptor sees many links between activism and art. In her own words, she also wants to make sensitive work with a strong political-social resonance.
The sculpture Amor Mundi was used as the cover for the book with the same title by Steven Vromman (aka Low Impact Man). This positive 'post-apocalyptic look-ahead novel' aims to show us a mirror of how our current actions could very well cost us dearly in a few decades' time. Think of future words like dream farms, no-direction streets, heat carpets and rain bombs. The title of the work Amor Mundi, with the subtitle 'Preliminary memoirs of a child of revolution 2025-52 ', therefore seemed appropriate as an opener to our art window.
From Thursday 1 July 2021, a temporary installation will be presented in the showcase of nodenaysteen under the title EXPOnential. This is a realisation of Philippe Van de Velde.
From Thursday 1 July 2021, a temporary installation will be presented in the showcase of nodenaysteen under the title EXPOnential. This is a realisation of Philippe van De Velde, also known from Studio Orka, in collaboration with the Allusion team. The work-in-progress installation with pollarded willow branches and metal supports - in itself an absurd combination - aims to bring together 'old' and 'contemporary'. It is the maker's first conceptual installation, inspired by the building's shell. We show you a video installation where the projection of the filmed is repeated on different carriers, while the rhythm of the repetition slows down exponentially. It is the version 0.1 of an application that will eventually serve to illustrate the power of blockchain technology in the realm of art, but also privacy and other domains. It is a first visible realisation, a kind of proof of concept, the essence of what Allusion stands for: Human ⧞ technology. You can view this montage all summer long in the showcase of Predikherenlei 4 in Ghent.
More pictures here later