Vidovic Art: A Live Plant Grows Through Walls in Ruben Bellinkx’s Site-Specific Installation

Friday, 6 April 2018

A Live Plant Grows Through Walls in Ruben Bellinkx’s Site-Specific Installation

Philodendron Xanad II / Site specific installation in exhibition ‘7x11’ / 2008 / Heden, Den Hague (NL), Courtesy Ruben Bellinkx / Geukens & De Vil

Philodendron Xanad II / Site specific installation in exhibition ‘7×11’ / 2008 / Heden, Den Hague (NL), Courtesy Ruben Bellinkx / Geukens & De Vil

Philodendron Xanad is a repeating site-specific installation by Belgium-based artist Ruben Bellinkx that physically imbeds a common houseplant into the walls of galleries and homes. The plant calmly rests on one side of the wall as several of its leaves reach through layers of dry wall and wooden beams to grow on the other side.

“The plant literally grows through the wall,” Bellinkx told Colossal. “I make a hole in the wall and place the plant so that there are enough leaves on the other side. Then I close everything with wooden panels. When there is enough light on the other side, the place grows further and lasts for a maximum of four months.”

The artist is a guest professors at KASK, the University College in Ghent, Belgium in the department of Fine Arts (Drawing), and lives in Brussels. His work is currently included in the group exhibition The Raft. Art is (not) Lonely, curated by Jan Fabre and Joanna De Vos at Mu.ZEE in Ostend, Belgium through April 15. You can view documentation of the installation process for Philodendron Xanad below, and see more of Bellinkx’s temporary installations and photography on his website.