Asiat-Darse Bridge | Counterspace

Counterspace’s response to the brief uncovered the story and legacy of Paul Panda Farnana, one of the most important, yet least acknowledged figures of the city, who epitomises the region’s complex relationships with past and future generations of migrant bodies and communities.

Vally looked to the water architectures of the Congo as one of the starting points to honour this history. Along the Congo River, fleets of dugout canoes are frequently seen docked alongside one another. As a collective, they form a communal platform, from which trading and gathering can take place.

These images form the basis for the proposed Asiat-Darse bridge, itself a place of gathering of travellers, whether commuters or visitors. The bridge is constructed of a series of boats tied together to cross the canal.

Vally looked at plants and species to honour Farnana’s horticultural work. Each ‘boat’ form serves as an isolated seed bed, in which specific plants can be cultivated in order for their seeds to be spread on the wind, and carried on the bodies of people travelling across the bridge. As a result, the bridge pays homage to Farnana’s horticultural work, serving as a nursery, or seeding bed from which plants may distribute themselves, migrating across the site. 

In addition to the main structure, several smaller boat structures are proposed, which embed themselves along the river bank. Each of them will be named for the labourers whose names were included on the register from the Congo, which the studio discovered in their research. Every boat will act as a pollinator - pollinating an industrial zone and acting as a little garden for reflection for passers-by to rest in.

Counterspace’s submission was supported with the generous engineering expertise of AKT II.

Construction is expected to start in April 2024, with a completion date of December 2025.

The Asiat-Darse bridge is a project of the city of Vilvoorde and Horst Arts & Music. It is financed by Platform Kunst in Opdracht of the Flemish Department for Culture, Youth and Media, and ANB, the Flemish Agency for Nature and Forest, who partnered with DVW, the Flemish Agency for Waterways. Curator Heidi Ballet is artistic advisor of the project.