Star of the Sea echoed various architectural structures encountered when walking along a Belgian beach and the North Sea coastline: a bunker, a fort, a pavilion, a sandcastle, or a playground on the sand. Yet, Star of the Sea resisted rigid classifications, just as its hexagonal shape resisted a straightforward reading as a star. Neither one nor the other, and at the same time, many forms at once.
This monumental concrete structure oscillated between a sculpture and a building. It was composed of interconnected cylindrical tubes and triangular inspection chambers that formed a central inner courtyard. The material resonated with the industrial activities in the area. The modular pieces brought the city’s hidden infrastructure onto the beach: these pipes were typically used in sewage systems to carry wastewater. Various textures and marks were visible on the walls.
Entering the work through one of the circular openings, visitors found themselves in a tunnel. The interior spaces were filled with interplays of light and shadow, sounds, and smells. Visitors and passers-by were invited to explore the space: to sit, lie, play, and interact with each other and the surroundings. The openings offered ‘periscopic’ views of radically different locations, including the industrial port, the dunes, the sea, and the villas on the promenade. Together, they formed the landscape of Zeebrugge, which was atypical for the Belgian coast.
Star of the Sea continued the artist’s long-standing interest in exploring how art in public space could respond to situations and how porosity and uncertainty could be integrated into the creative process. The work could thus be viewed as a temple dedicated to ‘the unpredictable present.’ Adjacent to a section of the beach that was being reclaimed by nature, where a dune was slowly forming, this temple was in constant interaction with the elements: wind, sand, and the cycle of tides. For the six months that it resided in Zeebrugge, the work not only registered the changing conditions on the beach but was also transformed by them: sand amassed around it, burying certain sections, and water seeped into and pooled within the interior. Star of the Sea—a ‘barometer’ that recorded change.
Artist Ivan Morison (b. 1974, Istanbul, TR) has established an ambitious situated practice that transcends traditional divisions between art, architecture, theatre and activism. His work is often performance-based and site-specific, existing as one-off events and large-scale installations and buildings in public spaces.