April Virtual Residency Immaterial Lake 

Open Doors 2 May 2023

@immaterial__lake

Immaterial Lake

Immaterial Lake is an online gallery, dedicated to/placed in a drained lake in the far North of Denmark.

The piece they are bringing to Brussels is 𝒞𝓉𝓇𝓁 + 𝓋 by Noah Holtegaard. It consists of an instagram filter made from a shell found in the dry lands of the former lake. The shell is a relic of the time when it was still connected to the ocean.

During each work day of April the initiators of Immaterial Lake - Inga Gerner Nielsen and Johannes Maria Schmit - digitally placed the shell on and in various EU-institutions. This is an intervention done to open up for a speculative research about the supranational possibilities to materialize the dream of the gallery - which is ultimately to stop the pumps that are draining the lake for over hundred years by now.

Inga Gerner Nielsen and Johannes Maria Schmit moved to Brussels in 2021, with Inga starting at @a.pass_artistic_research, shortly after opening the Immaterial Lake gallery. In the meanwhile five pieces have been exhibited up North, made by artists from the Scandinavian context.

Passing through the European quarter on a daily basis when bringing their 6-year-old to school, Inga and Johannes have gotten in close touch with the material architecture of the European Union - as well as with some of the people working it.

The exhibition of 𝒞𝓉𝓇𝓁 + 𝓋 in Brussels is a way to engage these new acquaintances in conversations about ownership of land, nature rights and rewildering-policies. The ambition is to, through dialogue, carve out a tale on how the EU had their entire apparatus’ revolve around the re-establishment of a small lake in Denmark. The final story will be presented and celebrated in an IRL event by the end of April (photos above).