Sophie Nys: Slot
For her fifth solo exhibition at Galerie Greta Meert, Sophie Nys presents a series of polaroid photographs of Brussels’ iconic Pension Tower. Built in the mid 1960s for the Belgian Federal Pension Service, this 148 meters skyscraper also known as the South Tower is the tallest building in Belgium. The 18 photographs taken by Nys from the rooftop of the building where she resides, allegorically stand-in for the number of years that the artist will have to keep working and pay social contributions before she can retire. The legal age of retirement in Belgium is currently set at 67 years for people who will retire after February 2030. The retail price of one polaroid represents the amount of pension money that Nys is set out receive on a monthly basis once she retires (one polaroid = 1588,44 euros, the equivalent of one month of Nys’ future pension when calculated today).
Alongside these photographs, the artist placed three offerbloks throughout the space. These wooden offertory boxes are inspired by the troncs commonly found in Christian churches built before the 19th century to collect coins for charitable purposes. Originally made from hollowed-out tree trunks, these boxes were intended to collect funds for poor relief prior to the secularisation of social systems of redistribution. In some cases, the money would arrive directly to the rectory through a slanted tube. Here, Nys’ evocatively shaped alms boxes speak to the formal connection between past and the present systems of redistribution. The exhibition is accompanied by Slot, a publication where Nys compiled historic images of poor boxes found at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA).
