Along the route of the Glow light festival, a small organ appears with a projection on the walls of the city behind it. The work is not called ‘Shadow Organ’ for nothing and tells the story of the negative and positive side effects that the corona pandemic has brought with it.

The Shadow Organ is an art installation by artist collective Love for the City and is one of the nominees for this year’s GLOW Talent Awards. The artwork is the last part of a triptych, the first part of which was made in 2020. The corona pandemic is the common thread in the triptych. This year, the focus is on stories about how the pandemic has gotten under people’s skin.

Because even by the end of 2022, the pandemic is not as far away as it sometimes seems. Moreover, many people still struggle with feelings and thoughts that have not been expressed, according to the collective. The artwork must give Eindhoven residents the space to express those thoughts and feelings. By having conversations with residents of the city, the artists have created an image of all the different feelings that live around corona.

That feeling was then visualized by translating the essence of the stories into small templates. The Shadow Organ shines a light on these patterns, so that the stories can be seen on the walls of Eindhoven. In this way, the stories should provide a moment to have a conversation about this topic. “Our artwork should function as a conversation starter. For example, it gives Glow visitors the opportunity to express their feelings.” Isis Boot – Artist of Love for the City.

Love for the City

Before designing the artwork, the makers of the Shadow Organ talked to children, young people and seniors about the lonely and nasty corona period for many – while others experienced the incidentals, such as lockdowns, as pleasant.

Designer Isis Boot highlights one of the most striking stories she has heard in these conversations. “During one of the lockdowns, a grocery delivery person had more time to visit his addresses. This allowed him to have a chat with people who needed that extra. His story is told in the artwork through a series of cars that be projected onto the wall.”

In addition, GLOW visitors can cut and paste a template for their own story and add it to the series of the artwork. That’s how the Shadow Organ is always in motion, that’s the idea. “During the corona time we learned to look at our time differently. It isolated us from the world, but also brought us closer together,” visitor GLOW.

Trilogy

Love for the City started the triptych back in 2020 with the artwork “Separated not isolated”. They had several Eindhoven residents make models of their own living rooms during lockdown for that artwork. Together, these models formed a hotel of stories in isolation. It had to provide a connection between city residents during the lonely time.

Last year, the artist collective created a work of art under the motto “The City of Light Laughs”, an installation in which laughter, from smiling to roaring laughter, was exhibited, because laughter ‘is a virus that can be spread’, according to the collective. Here, too, connection was the goal.

Source: Studio040

For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez