Between August 2022 and April 2023 I have been regularly visiting and recording two recently finished underground parking spaces in the southern part of the city of Antwerp in Belgium. They are situated between the river Scheldt and the ‘Leien’ ,a vertical traffic axis.Both consist of four levels that together can hold up to 2000 vehicles and 300 bicycles. Even though all four levels are accessible, only the levels one and two are currently used buy the public. The lower two levels have been empty throughout all of my visits.From the walls and ceilings of these massive concrete spaces, water drips down and transforms them into a moist molding cave-like environment with a long reverb and a constant 100 Hz sine tone resonance caused by the venting system.
When entering the parkings ‘Kooldok’ and ‘Steendok’, one actually descends into one of Antwerp’s former harbor docks leveling up with the Scheldt. Wooden ships waited here for favorable tides to continue transporting their goods until in 1967 the last ship set its sail after the area became obsolete due to increased ship sizes and thriving harbor in the north of the city. The docks were filled up and made room for an empty square with an annual fairground being the highlight.400 years earlier this same site was about five hectares in size, covering most of the current residential area, and served as the location for the ‘South Castle’, a citadel surrounded by canals and ditches built as a watch tower. From here the Spanish soldiers, who then ruled these lands, kept the people of Antwerp in check making sure to crush any uprising in fear of revolution. Even after it was demolished in 1881, leftovers of its foundations were still found during the construction of the parking docks.
Currently its function is based on intermediacy, on connecting people with whatever their goal above ground may be. Visitors either want to get rid of or retrieve their car and start either exploring the city or return home as fast as possible, spending an average time of around 30 seconds there. Because of this craving for what lies ahead the space has no meaning besides its function and is not perceived in relation to its previous functions or even its current majestic yet questionable state.
It took me several months and regular visits for this space to reveal its sounds and to show me different perspectives of how I could listen to it, both from a very concrete to an imaginary and historical way of listening. It’s curious how me engaging with this space through the act of listening has made it so familiar to the point where I can spend hours there at a time. I hope that with this piece I can evoke a similar curiosity within the listener for this space and to stay attentive for the environment they find themselves in and what a space can reveal to them.
Available here
