Laminar Experience

<p><em>Taming the Horror Vacui</em> is not an exhibition of works by Haseeb Ahmed at Rib. Since 2018, Rib has been considering a durational, evolutionary format deconstructing the practice of an artist and initiating a dialogue with local conditions; a generative model instead of a representational one. The artist’s interventions in the architecture of the art space pile up gradually. However, the freshly inaugurated wind tunnel for <em>Taming the Horror Vacui</em> functions as a solid core around which the program unfolds. It is an important milestone.</p> <p>The fourth event in Ahmed’s <em>Taming the Horror Vacui</em> program featured the arrival of the wind tunnel at Rib. It was accompanied by a lecture and workshop by Prof. Olivier Chazot, head of the Aeronautics and Aerospace Department at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics near Brussels. Prof. Chazot also advised the artist and engineers on the design of the wind tunnel for Rib.</p> <p>Wind tunnels are tools used to test a scientific thesis. One might ask what a wind tunnel is testing once it is put in an art context. Karl Popper talked about falsifiability as a necessary condition for a statement to be scientific: theses can be proven false given certain evidence. What kind of beliefs and thesis are tested in the wind tunnel at Rib? Are they scientific even if not falsifiable? Are they artistic even if falsifiable? What kind of evidence is sought in the laminar air flow of the tunnel when it is part of an art program?…</p>