From June 20 to 22, the international artist collective Plastique Fantastique will present an outdoor artistic installation as part of STROOM – Festival in the Scheldt Valley. The work was created through the STARTS4Water residency program by Gluon in collaboration with VITO.
PROGRAMME
The installation is open for continuous visits from June 20 to 22. On Saturday, June 21, we will activate the installation with a program of lectures, guided walks, and performances. Against the atmospheric backdrop of the Kruibeke polder, this program offers deeper insight into the ideas and processes behind the work. Together, we dive into the material and ecological entanglements that shape our contemporary world and explore what it means to listen to landscapes marked by both damage and recovery.
15:00 Welcome
Introduction by Sophie Detremmerie (Director of STROOM) & Christophe De Jaeger (Director of Gluon)
15:15 Panel Discussion
The Kruibeke polder, a restored floodplain along the Scheldt, functions as a natural buffer and contributes to water management and ecological restoration. At the same time, the water flowing through it still carries pollutants such as microplastics and industrial waste. How do we value restoration when pollution is still present? Where are the limits of what nature can cleanse?
This tension reflects a broader reality where solutions rarely exist in absolute terms. For years, Plastique Fantastique has created large-scale plastic installations. During their residency at Gluon, they explored the potential of bio-based plastics. These are often seen as a more environmentally friendly alternative, but at the same time, fossil-based plastics, when kept in a carefully organized recycling system, can sometimes be less harmful than generally assumed.
What does it really mean to be sustainable? Is it a fixed destination or rather an ongoing quest? In a world where materials and systems are intertwined, sustainability is not always clear-cut and straightforward.
Ella Michiels will discuss this with the artists and experts from VITO and the University of Antwerp connected to this project.
16:00 Walk through the Kruibeke polder
A guided walk led by systems ecologist Patrick Meire, one of the scientists behind the development of the Kruibeke polder. A unique opportunity to explore the area through the eyes of an expert.
17:30 Performance by Plastique Fantastique
ABOUT THE PROJECT
POLYMETER is a site-specific, large-scale installation that explores the interconnection between human processes and natural systems. The installation consists of a giant distillation flask containing three concentric, air-inflated layers, each symbolizing a phase in our material, technological, and cultural evolution:
The outer layer, made of fossil-based polyurethane, represents the industrial present. The middle layer, made of recyclable bioplastic, symbolizes a transitional moment — hopeful, yet unfinished. The inner layer, made of algae, is ephemeral and biodegradable, referring to a deeper ecological intelligence based on natural cycles.
Inside the installation unfolds a soundscape: the crackling of plastic, the hissing of air, the popping of a bubble, mixed with the sounds of the surrounding polder. Composed in polymetric loops, these sounds form a layered rhythm where nothing completely aligns — an echo of the dissonance between industrial and biological systems.
The location of POLYMETER is closely linked to its theme. The Kruibeke polder, a restored floodplain along the Scheldt River, functions as a natural buffer and contributes to water management and ecological restoration. At the same time, the water flowing through it still carries pollutants including microplastics.
Placed in this landscape, POLYMETER makes tangible the entanglement between natural systems and human processes. The work does not focus on a single relationship but rather on a web of tensions: between pollution and purification, synthetic and natural, waste and resource. In the breathing layers of the installation, sustainability is not presented as a fixed answer but as a circulating question — fragile, multiple, and constantly in motion.
ABOUT S+T+ARTS4Water II
S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology, and the Arts) is an initiative by the European Commission that highlights a nexus with extraordinarily high potential for innovation–an essential aspect of mastering the social, ecological, and economic challenges that Europe will be facing in the near future. Bringing together art, technology, and science, S+T+ARTS4WaterII – Ports in Transformation is dedicated to tackling the complex environmental and societal challenges present in Europe’s ports and port cities.
