Sculptor Luk Van Soom leaves his mark on the Brussels skyline with monumental cloud in aluminium

Henceforth, Belgian visual artist Luk Van Soom leaves his mark on the Brussels skyline. On Wednesday he installed a monumental silver-coloured cloud on top of the roof of Espace Jacqmotte, the renovated former coffee factory in the heart of the Marolles. In the Cloud is an aluminum work of art no less than 7.5 meters long, supported by three pairs of bronze legs, each 2.5 meters high. It is a temporary installation. The effect is very impressive, in particular the interaction with the nearby Palace of Justice.

Daring exploit
Luk Van Soom: “To be honest, at the start I didn’t see how to approach this. I am used to making monumental sculptures, but this is by far my tallest work. And I couldn’t imagine how to get a cloud of 7.5 meters into a studio or foundry. As the cloud is based on a smaller specimen, we had to overcome the difficulty of how to enlarge it. In collaboration with the people of atelier Moker we managed to solve that problem.”
The original cloud has been scanned, digitally enlarged and divided into 96 fragments. Those pieces are milled in polyethylene, on which sand molds were made. The aluminum pieces were cast in it, then welded together and polished. Inside the work is a construction with which the parts are attached to each other and to the roof. It was highly important to exclude any erosion.
Luk Van Soom: “The entire process took 2.5 years. Despite 40 years of experience, it was a quest to incorporate the latest techniques into my work process. Fitting the sculpted legs on the digital cloud was a particularly exciting moment. I still think it’s incredible that it went perfectly right from the start. The installation on top of the roof of Espace Jacqmotte was of course a highlight. ”

The cloud as a symbol
For Van Soom it is not his first work in our capital. On the Waterloolaan is already his Man of Atlantis, a four meter high outside world creature overlooking his urban environment. This floating, this imaginative, this transcending gravity is a common thread in the artist’s work. Clouds play a central role throughout his oeuvre.
Luk Van Soom: “For me, clouds are a breeding ground for romantic dreams, a symbol for the infinite, the distant and the indeterminate, the free and the formlessness. The cloud has no traceable shape and is thus a sign of the impossible. In our time and context we have often forgotten how to see, but those who really look at a cloud are inevitably encouraged to think, to leave the fixed patterns. ”
As the name In the Cloud suggests, the artist also draws an analogy with our contemporary technological world: “I like to imagine that clouds carry with them knowledge and wisdom, like the floating brains of deceased world thinkers. You can compare it with how we upload data in the cloud. Anyone who puts his head into such a cloud will be given the tools to answer questions and find solutions. All that knowledge floating around freely, ready to take, how beautiful is that? ”

A wink to René Magritte
With this work, Van Soom connects strikingly with that other lover of clouds, the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Like Magritte, he uses clouds as an expression of the omnipresent gravity.

Magritte juxtaposed airy elements against that gravity, indicating that you can – or even must – always approach the tough reality lightly. Otherwise the whole thing becomes unbearable. I’ve always loved that imagery.

Amazing contribution to the cityscape
The project is an initiative of architect Michel Jaspers and his family, who renovated and repurposed the former factory more than twenty years ago. The motivation behind the initiative is simple: “We want to help making the city more beautiful. As an architect, as a resident of Brussels and as a person, I enjoy the beauty of the city and I like to contribute to it. Roofs are often forgotten, although they are not called “the fifth facade” for nothing. “
In other words, art as an upgrade of the cityscape, although that is not the only positive result of the project. “Our artists are having a really hard time at the moment, in these strange times. We are pleased that with this project we can contribute to the artistic story, which is very important. ”

Other works by Van Soom are the totem pole Walhalla on the Italiëlei in Antwerp and the illuminated row of trees Walking to Magdalena in Ostend.