The context

In Wevelgem, near Kortrijk, a large villa from the beginning of the last century, located in an English-style garden created at the same time, acts as a town hall. In the same park also stand two "folies" that are small buildings, or pavilions, used at the time to play cards or drink tea.

A library has recently been built there. The library’s regulars use the park as a place to read. They then allow themselves to be distracted by this park, as at the theater, being both spectators and actors.

The choice of the artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot is explained by his previous creations of scenic installations. With a background as musician and composer, he creates evolving installations where the rhythms of nature and everyday life are transformed into music and images.

The commission

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's project for Wevelgem includes two pavilions and a cooler. His artwork offers a new stage in the life of these pavilions of the last century.

The artist proposes to combine the fields of the living, the movement of light and the sound by arousing the curiosity of the walker through a multi-sensory experience.

The first pavilion will contain a swarm of bees that will build its hive freely in the pavilion. This organic architecture in constant evolution will develop itself while making visible an artistic and sculptural object realized by nature.

The second pavilion will present a luminous translation of the movement of flying bees. The windows and the door of the pavilion will be equipped with colored glass panes in hues that the bees do not see. A lighting system placed inside the pavilion will vary according to the movement and activity of the swarm. A fogger will diffuse a mist all around the pavilion that will give body to the luminous movement.

In the old underground cooler will be a sound installation related to the activity of bees. At night when the bees are less active, the sound recorded the day before will be rebroadcast.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot joined forces with landscape architects in July 2016 to better integrate his artwork into the redevelopment of the park which will be adapted to enhance it. These landscape architects have included in their plans a gently sloping footbridge that leads to the bees pavilion, so that all walkers, regardless of their mobility, would be able to admire the bees in action.

The project has been inaugurated June 15, 2019.