Regenerative Flows
Invitation
Regenerative Flows is a living landscape that grows and evolves over time. It's an ode to the slow but constant transformations of travertine deposition in healing springs.
A place where stillness reigns, and time seems to slow down. As contributors exhale, CO2 reacts with slaked lime (Ca(OH)₂), and a solid carbon-locking landscape of limestone gradually forms.
This natural process is a reaction in the subaquatic realm where mineral fallout form a delicate dance, one that is only visible to the most patient and observant visitors.
The installation forms a starting point, a nucleation for different artistic perspectives to inspire and co-create, adding new poetic layers to the installation.
Regenerative Flows invites us to slow down, to pause and take stock of the world around us. It is a reminder that beauty and complexity can arise from the simplest of materials and the most basic of processes.
RESEARCH
The phenomenon we replicate is called the precipitation of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) . The two compounds interacting are Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) and Carbon dioxide (CO₂).
For the precipitation to occur an oversaturated solution of aqueous calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) gets disturbed by atmospheric CO₂, changing the PH values.
A rough surface of Belgian Blue limestone (Carrières du Hainaut) is used to stimulate the crystal nucleation, a process that leads to crystal growth.
Calcite is a component of limestone and is the most stable and abundant polymorph of calcium carbonate on the earth. Its growth and dissolution play critical roles in the global carbon cycle.
An installation by Sep Verboom
Video by Glenn Verdickt
Special thanks Annelies Thoelen, Marnix Rummens, Juraj Olejar, Tom Peeters (Open Biolab Brussels), Prof. dr. Stijn Dewaele (Ugent), Rik Storms, Kapow, Nerdlab, Atelier Winters, Hacienda-stabiliteit
Commissioned by Z33, House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture. Supported by
Z33
Z33 is a ground-breaking arts institution in Hasselt that works at the intersection of art, design and architecture. It is a safe haven on the periphery with a magnificent new building and a refreshingly diverse programme. It is a rugged playground for artistic research, with its sights set on the world, its feet in the mud, and a heart that beats for talent development, (un)learning, the enjoyment of research and scintillating collaborations.
Sep Verboom
The Belgian creative Sep Verboom (1990) is at once designer and social entrepreneur, less concerned with the objectification of the result, more with the context in which it takes place.
‘Too often we measure success and profit in terms of economic values. What happened to the importance of people’s well-being and health of our environment?’
Through his Livable® platform, Verboom brings together partners as diverse as their geographies: from the Peruvian Amazon to Indonesia, and from local governments or commercial companies to NGO’s.
Verboom graduated with a degree in Industrial Design (HOWEST) and in Sustainable Development from (VIVES) both in Kortrijk (BE).
His collaborative approach has been internationally recognised, with numerous expositions and awards. In 2018 Sep Verboom won the Belgian Henry Van De Velde Award for Young Talent. In 2020 his commitment to socially engaged design earned him the prestigious title ‘Designer of the Year’ by Biennale Interieur.