DE NOR (2018)

De Nor is a social sculp­ture made by Dennis Tyfus and FVWW Architects, housed at Middelheim Museum / open air sculp­ture park. When acti­vat­ed, it hous­es con­certs, per­for­mances, lec­tures, book- and record pre­sen­ta­tions and par­ties, when not acti­vat­ed it remains part of the muse­um’s collection.

Here’s what Sis Matthé wrote about De Nor when it just opened in 2018:

The 248^th Ultra Eczema release is De Nor, a recent per­ma­nent sculp­ture at the Middelheim Museum, part of the group exhi­bi­tion Experience Traps in the sum­mer of 2018, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with archi­tects FVWW. In one image, De Nor cap­tures many of the aspects of Dennis Tyfus’s work. It’s a sculp­ture, but also a place for orga­niz­ing events, and in that sense it per­fect­ly fits the series of places in which Tyfus has been involved in the last twen­ty years. It’s a sculp­tur­al ver­sion of Tyfus the orga­niz­er. De Nor is com­posed of a num­ber of basic ele­ments, all of them shaped in a very par­tic­u­lar way. First, we see a fence, an enclo­sure made out of one thou­sand poles. If we enter through one of the gates, we see a red-traver­tine floor, which serves as a stage, engraved with a draw­ing by Tyfus. Then there is a con­crete stand for the audi­ence, a bar under it,and a neon-light name. The name is a prod­uct of Tyfus’s fas­ci­na­tion with the word ​“nor” [slam­mer, joint, nick, pen, jail], of his pref­er­ence for car­toon language.It’s an explic­it choice to install De Nor at the edge of the park, right next to the main entrance. Just like Gunther or Stadslimiet (spaces he ran with Vaast Colson), the space squeezes itself into the open-air muse­um in a pret­ty impos­si­ble way. The edge of the park becomes a check­point at the bor­der. The work is a flood­gate or a lock, a tran­sit home for peo­ple who wash up, wait and move on, stay and go. The exact loca­tion is large­ly decid­ed by the shape of the park, by the loca­tion of the trees. The fence winds itself through the trees. The stand and the traver­tine stage are locat­ed in a clear​ing​.De Nor is an enclosed space with a porous bor­der. Some trees are sud­den­ly part of De Nor, and some of the rhodo­den­drons will have to find each oth­er through the fence. Two gates pro­vide some clar­i­ty. One makes sure De Nor can be accessed from the sculp­ture park, dur­ing the open­ing hours. This gate is closed when the oth­er gate opens De Nortowards the street. The sec­ond gate is an alter­na­tive entrance to the park, left of the main entrance. When the sec­ond gate is open to the street, the park is reduced to the size ofDe Nor, an inti­mate place, half hid­den in the bushes.The stand wel­comes the spec­ta­tors, who come for what’s hap­pen­ing on stage, heads in the foliage. The bar quench­es people’sthirst. These are the nec­es­sary ele­ments of a place Tyfus loves, the rudi­men­ta­ry build­ing blocks to bring peo­ple togeth­er. What’s cru­cial, of course, are the events and the peo­ple going there as per­form­ers or spec­ta­tors. The sum­mer of 2018 was a long sequence of open-air con­certs, read­ings, and performances.

Sis Matthé