This weekend we explored Lelystad (Netherlands) in advance of a comparative study to new towns Marl (Germany), Lelystad (Holland) and Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgian). (Before I put the next idea on paper I must say that I had a great time exploring Lelystad! These feelings and ideas come from a good place.)
After four days of suburban garden city exploration I wanted to create a destroyer – an installation that will work as a Idol for gut-feeling, subjectivity and humility in the face of nature. An idol that will remind the inhabitants of Marl, Lelystad and Louvain la Neuve that they are not defined by those who build the city, and who’s ideas loom over the city like a black moon in a clear sky.
In my mind this installation, this idol, will stamp their earth, burn their minds and flood their homes. And they will love it! A young city will need a young heart in the form of a fierce god. Each year they will celebrate it’s power and unite in identity and community and spirit. They will get drunk and get laid and dance and know that they have brothers and sisters in Belgie, Holland and Germany.
Name
He is known by many names. Some call him the ‘God of the Three Cities’, because of the cults in Lelystad, Marl and Louvain-la-Neuve, others call him ‘The God of the Elements’ or The God of Destruction’, but those who know him best call him ‘Romancer’, because he brings meaning and urgency to harts and actions. Romancer is a local god and is worshipped as a force of subjectivity and the power of nature. For some he symbolizes the power of humility over hubris, for other he stands for heeling over fragmentation and others associate him with heart over mind and feelings over thoughts. His dark side is madness.
History
He was first mentioned in 2014. Urban explorers who compared Lelystad, Marl and Louvain-la-Neuve encountered the then still unknown deity of Romance. According to them the worship was related to the shared history of hubris and the original discard of nature.
First the team of explorers thought they were different city gods because the people in Marl referred to a deity they called the Earth God, while in Lelystad they talked about the God of Water and in Louvain-la-Neuve they gathered around rituals involving fire. The explorers learned that Romancer was a popular reaction against the kind of engineer-thinking that once created their city but left their hearts and communities hollow. Like Christians found solace and community in Jesus in a time of Roman brutality, these people will find solace and community after being beaten by enlightened thought and rational planning. The Romancer is a cult to remind themselves that life is rooted in, and guided by, subjectivity.
Idol
The idol of the three cults is one and the same. In all the cities it is a large shining machine in the shape of a peer, or teardrop, and spiky like a cactus. It is filled with books that are thrown inside and burned. In Marl they sometimes use coal. The heat makes steaming jets of boiling water blow out of the top of its heat. The machine then screams like an angry tribe of banshees and warns of heavy flooding. The power of steam is harnessed by an internal engine that makes the hammer-legs come down on the anvil-foots (it has four legs by the way, so it won’t fall), which in turn shakes the ground and rattle the nerves. High screams, bolts of steam and large blows will shake the town square. Flames are seen in the mouth and in the eyes of the idol.
According to the believers the altar symbolizes the destruction of knowledge, the flooding of land, and the power of earthquakes, which remind them that true knowledge lies in the heart and not in the mind.
Festival
Each year, on different times, the populations of Marl, Lelystad and Louvain-la-Neuve celebrate their belief in Romancer during a festival in his name. In Lelystad they throw water, get drunk and dance & chant around the idol. In Marl they stamp the ground, get drunk and dance & chant. In Louvain la Neuve they burn books, get drunk and dance & chant. There are 20 priest in each city that burn the books (or coal, in Marl), beat up drunken followers who come to close, and guard the idol overnight.
Proposal
This is a proposal. I want to create this idol and start a religion!