Skip to content

The Solitary One

    There you are, solitary in the middle of a pitch-black hole. How did you get there, and how could you get out? You’re shouting, screaming, signaling to the outside world, but everything seems to return to you like a boomerang. Nothing can escape the horizon, or does it? Is there something or someone out there who might see or hear your experience inside? 

    ‘The Solitary One’ is a performative installation transforming the most extreme and paradoxical object that our universe harbours – a black hole – into an immersive audiovisual experience.

    Visual artist Klaas Verpoest, sound artist Vincent Caers and cellist-composer Benjamin Glorieux tend to unite art and science in their individual work. A shared fascination for the inexplicable aspects of a black hole and the concepts of space and time led to a joint venture in which they explore the artistic potential of their combined disciplines for illustrating these themes. Along the way they collaborated with theoretical physicist Stéphane Detournay. Their aim is not to provide a scientific explanation, which remains the scientist’s task, but instead to create an immersive installation offering the audience an opportunity for experiencing cosmological phenomena and the incredible forces driving them.

    October 23, 2021 – Februari 27, 2022: ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
    October 23, 2021: Opening performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]

    February 18, 2022: Closing performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
    September 8, 2023 – February 4, 2024: Space is the Place exhibition – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)
    December 7, 2023: Space is the Place performance – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)

    Credits:
    Vincent Caers: Sound Artist
    Benjamin Glorieux: Cellist/Composer
    Stéphane Detournay: Scientific Advisor
    Klaas Verpoest: Video artist