Claudio Parmiggiani. L'isola del silenzio

Founded in 1663 by the order of St Saviour, the Chapelle des Brigittines is one of the most prestigious places today in Brussels for contemporary art.
Claudio Parmiggiani's installation "L'Isola del Silenzio" has been sited here: a magnificent Lombard bell in bronze, placed on the floor in front of an irregular pyramid of books, piled up one against the other like the stones of an old building, in place of the altar.
The artist's taste for allegory, the close relationship between space and art work, the silence, the ashes and dust settling on the paper, all create a psychological and ethical place characterised by angst and melancholy, but also a symbolically resistant rock that silently opposes the devastation of culture.
The silent shape of the bell now stands where the choir once sang in harmony; where there was once a library with its treasure of knowledge and learning, a pile of useless paper remains.
Parmiggiani's cry of alarm and pain is directed, with hope, towards more attentive and sensitive souls.