Ghouls, 2024

In Arabian folklore, ghouls or scavengers are fictitious monsters that roam cemeteries, looking for human flesh. Isabelle Andriessen explored how these mythical creatures might appear today. Her search took her to the Craeybeckx Tunnel beneath the museum. An underground motorway with an audible but invisible roar of cars.

The ghouls lurk at the emergency exits and ventilation grills in the tunnel. They have something sinister below the surface, and tainted with fear, death, tombs and violence. Yet these sculptures still pull you closer. The strange figures have some kind of appeal.

Like a slow performance, they change very subtly: they ooze, sweat and change colour. Their shiver-inducing appearance recalls machines, infrastructure and relics. Are they an omen of a dystopic landscape, a toxic wasteland from which mankind has disappeared? Or instead do they suggest development and growth, an endless desire for life? What gives life to something lifeless? And is there actually such a clear line between living and lifeless?

Number 12 on the map.