Castlemania is a shared project between Galerie Fleur & Wouter and No Limits! Art Castle. One exhibition at two locations, created in collaboration with co-curator Simon Marsiglia. For the chapter in our gallery Open the Gates!, the gallery transforms into the interior of a castle of the future with contributions from a large number of artists:
aeoi + Anima, Maikel Baas, August Bällgren, Joey Bocciardo, Alexis Bondoux, Youssef Boucenna, Jeroen Bouwmeester, Koos Buster, Noah Cohen, Chai Dienn, Oskar Frere-Smith, Ori van Gelderen, Naomi Gilon, Carl Johan Jacobsen, Danielle Karlikoff, Bin Koh, Ralf Kokke, Susan Kooi, Lokidolor, Jessica Magnin, Simon Marsiglia, Erik Mattijssen, Mai van Oers, Baby Reni (Irene Ha), Saar Scheerlings, Janne Schimmel, Tomasz Skibicki, Lukas Sluiter x No Limits! Art Castle, Anke Stoel, Noa Verkeyn & Peer Vink.
In No Limits! Art Castle chapters two and three are on view: Less is Bore by Johan Vanderschelden and Burn them All by Jordan R̶o̶g̶e̶r̶. All chapters open on Saturday 13 April (14.00 - 18.00 hrs at Galerie Fleur & Wouter and 18.00 - 03.00 at No Limits! Art Castle) This is also where the afterparty will take place, themed of course, in collaboration with SEXYLAND World and The Special Social Club.
On the designated day, they all arrived upon the precise coordinates (52.351930 4.888740) to unravel the mystery of their invitation.
They journeyed from the farthest reaches of our world (and beyond), spanning perhaps a million years apart in the timeline, with some arriving before the place ever saw human habitation and others long after it had vanished. Each attendee brought with them the contents of their received invite as stated below:
- A strand of code displayed digitally, an intricate pattern woven from numbers, letters, and symbols on a backdrop of various colours.
- A bronze dice, made from an endless pattern resembling a twisted ouroboros, coiling upon itself.
- A crumpled piece of paper bearing instructions.
Guided by the scrunched paper's directives, they all positioned their code displays at the coordinates and rolled the dice.
The heavy pieces of bronze clattered upon the ground in their respective realities, producing a range of sounds from a deep, resonant "klonk" to a vibrant, humming "swiiiiingggg," echoing the different surfaces they encountered. Yet, a common result emerged as the dices all ended up balanced on the same edge, merging two of the sides into a sideways figure-eight.
In an instant, a swirl of air was set in motion around them. When the sudden wind subsided, their realities intertwined, projected upon particles of dust stirred up by the gust of wind.
Across different worlds, they glimpsed each other's code fragments, forming a mosaic.
When assembled, the code transcended mere symbols and colours, unveiling an image.
Gathering in one place, yet spanning worlds apart, their codes fused into a multiverse depiction: a towering high-rise castle, fashioned from the very earth beneath their feet.
This was no ordinary fortress, but a structure assembled from fragments spanning across time and space. Similar to a crushed cartoon character being inflated back to life, the castle on their screens burgeoned into three-dimensional reality, encasing them within its ever-expanding walls. With each additional piece of code, the castle's walls grew, mirroring the collective contributions of its creators.
Upon completion, they found themselves within a grand hall at the castle's core, now able to perceive one another.
The castle seemed to have merged multiple realities into a singular space, adorned with items from their respective worlds.
Unbeknownst to them, they had breathed life into this patchwork castle—a testament to the crossroads of their stories.
(Simon Marsiglia, 2024)