Stingerbol

2012-2021

The Stingerbol is a sphere-shaped dome, ⌀ 18meter, which originally was built in 1984 as a 3D projection space where soldiers were trained in recognizing hostile aircrafts and shooting them by the portable Stinger rocket system. The space was abandoned around 1990 when the Cold War ended. The space is unique for its shape, dimensions and its mesmerizing echo. Every sound, even of whispering, is echoed up into the space and repeated endlessly. Is is impossible to have a conversation inside. When the doors are closed, the space is completely dark. There is no similar accessible object on earth.

Within my practice, my relationship with the Stingerbol is the longest I had with a space. In 2012 I entered the building for the first time, during a commissioned sketch design for an art project that would refer to the military history of this site. Instead of designing a sculpture, I proposed to let the Stingerbol become a sculpture that would be both an object and an accessible space. At that moment, the proposal saved the Stingerbol from being demolished. In 2019 I returned to the Stingerbol to perform a walk inside the dark interiors. I took a drumstick with me and an audio- devise to record my walk. In 2020 I invited four other artists for an Artist-In-Residence in the Stingerbol, not only to offer them the opportunity to work here, but also as a collective research project on the spatial characteristics and qualities of this dome.  The projects of the artists-in-residence, which were, due to Covid-19, seen by very few, were documented in a publication. This publication also includes the history of the Stingerbol. By interviewing veterans I was able to reconstruct the past.

I concluded my research in 2019 with my future proposal, in which the Stingerbol will live on as both a sculpture and a public space, free from any exploitation or business model, so that the public can assign every function or meaning they may like at any moment (singing, whispering, making art,…). In this proposal, all military left-over objects would be removed from the interior of the Stingerbol and the exterior will be got rid off the World Food Centre (owner of the lot) marks and re-painted in its original light gray colour. These interventions will make it an abstract object. Nature will be invited to completely surround the object again, as it did in 2019 before the redevelopment of the site started, to intensify the alienation by the contrast between nature and architecture. The front and back door will be unlocked, so that people can walk in and out to experience complete darkness, emptiness and the echo of their breath.

The proposal was shared with local spatial planners to open up a discussion on alternative, non-commercially but artistically driven future scenarios for the Stingerbol. They temporarily allowed me to use the Stingerbol for artistic experiments, in which I collaborated with four fellow artists. Local governmental restrictions following Covid-19 made me end this project in 2020. Up until today there is no official future scenario for this object.