The Labiomista art site in Genk is expanding with Future Garden, a new ecological centre and lab that aims to be the future of sustainable culture – and is home to two endangered tapirs.
For the past five years, there has been almost continuous work on the development of Labiomista, created by Flemish artist Koen Vanmechelen. The centre is a living, evolving work of art on the foundations of Limburg’s mining past and the former Zwartberg zoo.
The 24-hectare park has a new energy-efficient complex. The building was co-designed by Vanmechelen and is inspired by the mastaba, a funerary monument built by the ancient Egyptians and Aztecs, among others, to honour their dead. The reference to life and death is a common theme in the artist’s work.
In Genk, we can champion a concept where art is the driving force and not money
Future Garden is not a static artistic structure but a hub for research into the fusion of humans, nature, art, social economy and technology. Cross-disciplinary partners, including Hasselt University, will work on projects that contribute to the transition to a balance between culture and nature.
“What we do here every day would not be possible in a city like New York,” he says. “There is not enough space there. In Genk, we can champion a concept where art is the driving force and not money.”
Inside Future Garden, there is also room for a habitat for two tapirs, an endangered mammal that, according to Vanmechelen, symbolises “diversity, fertility and adaptation”. “It is an animal described by people in South America as a failure of nature,” he says. “It has the head of an elephant, the body of a pig and the legs of a rhinoceros. So a real, living mix.”