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Juggling circus heritage and high-tech art in a unique creative arena in Ghent

In partnership withthe European Commission
Juggling circus heritage and high-tech art in a unique creative arena in Ghent
Copyright euronews
Copyright euronews
By Cristina Giner
Published on
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Multidisciplinary artist Bjørn Gunnar Staal: “Technology can be used creatively to bring people together as in Wintercircus”

The visual artist and programmer Bjørn Staal brought the first exhibition at the Ghent Wintercircus Arena, after it opened its doors in September 2024. “Entangled” is a unique digital art installation that brings together robotics, generative algorithms and digital interaction. The Wintercircus is already achieving its goal: to “juggle” art, culture, technology, creation and innovation; and also to become part of the city’s fabric.

"The installation you see here is made specifically for this space," Bjørn says. "Being able to put this installation in the middle of the building and seeing it from up there and from all different angles. It's a very forgiving space to show installation art in. And also the contrast, I think, between the old in the building, and this, which is a very high tech installation, I think that contrast is also very interesting," Staal says.

"I want people to see that you can use technology creatively, maybe in ways that it wasn't intended to. But I think one thing that is relevant for this building is how technology can be used to bring people together, instead of just being this thing that maybe pulls us further apart, people just looking at their screens all the time.

"Experiencing the building itself, going through all these amazing spaces, cafés and restaurants, and also this collective space where you can sit and work, and knowing that these used to be stables where the horses and the elephants were. It adds some real interesting background to being in this space.

 "It's been a really nice synergy working with the people and the knowledge in this space to create something uniquely for this building. It's a very cool setting to meet a lot of people who have that interest and deep knowledge about technology."

Click on the video above to see the interview in full 

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