Constant

Constant_V: Hormonobotanik.wiki finissage

Elodie — 2026-01-27T22:26:48Z

Hormonobotanik is a project focusing on medicinal plants, their phytohormonal properties and their uses in transition processes, initiated by Flo*Souad Benaddi in 2019 then joined by Leo Ren O'faigain and Doriane Timmermans. This long-term artistic research, initially begun out of necessity, has taken the form of visual installations as well as textile objects and publications, which have circulated in queer circles.

Over the previous weeks, the project occupied the window of Constant by planting, watering, and cultivating the hormonobotanik wiki. The window was used as a physical interface to connect to the wiki evolution, but also as a place to make visible the process at work.

Join us for the finissage taking place on thursday 12 of February at 18h at our office rue du fort 5A in Brussels, where the artists will propose an activity to make our own cookie cutter, the tasting of a homemade drink, a visit to the expanded hormonobotanik wiki and finally hand out stickers of the project.

Hormonobotanik.wiki workshop

Elodie — 2025-12-18T15:34:32Z

*The workshop is fully booked*

Hormonobotanik is a project focusing on medicinal plants, their phytohormonal properties and their uses in transition processes, initiated by Flo*Souad Benaddi in 2019. This long-term artistic research, initially begun out of necessity, has taken the form of visual installations as well as textile objects and publications, which have circulated in queer circles.

In 2023, following an online residency, the collaboration with Leo Ren O'Faigain blossomed with Infusion2Gâteau, a first recipe composed of phytohormonal ingredients that was sent by email. We began to pool our research and imagine other recipes with the desire to put in practice our questions about gender in a 'gourmand' way. Nourished and inspired by online and offline self-support networks, we want to make accessible the corpus we are building. In 2024, with Doriane Timmermans, the idea of a tool for collective work, archiving, and dissemination of the project began to take shape: the hormonobotanik.wiki

Since November 2025, hormonobotanik is using the vitrine of Constant as a physical interface to connect to the wiki evolution, but also as a place to make visible the process at work.

On Saturday 31st January, a ‘web-to-screen printing' workshop based on the wiki content and other resources on trans identities will conclude this chapter of the project. Subscribe to the workshop by sending a mail to info@constantvzw.org

Workshop Saturday 31-01-26 from 11:00 till 17:00

Where: at Constant Studio, Chaussée de Jette | Jetsesteenweg 388, 1081 Koekelberg

Constant_V: Hormonobotanik.wiki

Elodie — 2025-10-27T10:26:18Z

Launch event: Thursday 27-11-2025 18:00 → 21:00

Over the next few weeks, we will therefore occupy the space offered by Constant by planting, watering, and cultivating this tool in the form of a wiki. The window will be used as a physical interface to connect to the wiki evolution, but also as a place to make visible the process at work.

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Workshop
A ‘web-to-screen printing' workshop based on the wiki content and other resources on trans identities will conclude this winter chapter.

When: Saturday 31-01-26 11:00 → 17:00

Where: at Constant Studio, Chaussée de Jette | Jetsesteenweg 388, 1081 Koekelberg

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With the support of : la Bourse Pollen et Racines de la Fondation Mycélium, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Arts Numériques, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles-Art Visuels, Vlaamse Overheid, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie

Tree times workshop

mia — 2025-10-22T11:53:33Z

Anne-Laure Buisson, Gijs de Heij, and An Mertens welcome you to a three-hour workshop around the Tree Times installation.

One of the installation's components is the diaries of the three Scots pines. You can request fragments via text message. Each fragment consists of two parts: an automatically generated sentence based on the measured data from the trees, and a handwritten fragment. The fragments are sent via a Python script running on Termux, an app you can install on a smartphone that provides an Android phone with a terminal, a basic computer interface.

During this workshop, we will look at how to easily generate automatic sentences based on a spreadsheet. You are welcome to bring your own spreadsheet with data!
Depending on time and enthousiasm, we will also explore the automatic sending of the generated sentences via text message.

You are very welcome!
No programming experience is necessary; being interested is enough. Please bring a laptop and an Android phone if you have one.

Constant_V: Tree Times

Donatella — 2025-09-23T12:38:13Z

Opening: Tuesday 07 - 10 - 2025 18:00 → 21:00
Workshop: Thursday 30 – 10 – 2025 18:00 → 21:00

When does a tree's sap start flowing, when do trees get to work in the morning, when does their trunk grow most? During one year, the artists of the Anaïs Berck collective* measured the movements of three Scots Pines in three nature reserves in Flanders, with the intention of designing tree clocks. They recorded their movements using sensors that measure the expansion and contraction of the trunk, CO2 absorption, air temperature and humidity, and sunlight.

Although the three trees live in similar habitats — the sandy and heathland soil of the Kalmthoutse Heide, Bosland National Park, and De Liereman — their internal clocks show significant differences. Should that be surprising?

The project was inspired by the idea of criptime, a notion of time invoked by people for whom normative time often doesn't meet their needs. A workday from 9 till 5, a route from A to B which should take ten minutes to walk according to the algorithm's prediction; but also life events that would normally occur, such as living autonomously, getting married, having children.

Therefore, Anaïs Berck created a data work displaying all the observations, along with the phases of the moon and the seasons. A web app also displays the detailed data for those interested in delving deeper into the observations. And finally, a tree clerk took the time to communicate with the trees and compiled a diary. It includes unusual days, whether due to tree activity, weather conditions, or the start of a new season. You can request a fragment of the diary via text message.

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Activities around this project

A workshop around this installation will take place on Thursday 30 October in Constant's office.

The installation runs simultaneously in Constant, the Kalmthoutse Heide/De Vroente, Landschap De Liereman, and Pijnven/National Park Bosland. There you can also participate in a moment of encounter, sharing and walks.
You find more information here.

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*Biography and acknowledgments

This project is a work of Anaïs Berck, an artistic collective of humans, trees, and algorithms:

Humans contributing to this project: An Mertens (coordination/tree clerk), Gijs de Heij & Doriane Timmermans (code/graphic design – Open Source Publishing), Anne-Laure Buisson (data scientist), Aelyn Van Diest (bioengineer/communication with the trees).
Trees contributing to this project: Scots Pine Kalmthoutse Heide (51.3873841, 4.4339524), Scots Pine De Liereman (51.331038, 5.038019), Scots Pine Bosland (51.1631441, 5.3102481).
Algorithms contributing to this project: Decentlab sun sensor, Milesight & Sensecap CO2 & temperature sensor; EMS Brno band dendrometers, point dendrometer and weather station from Ghent University (Dr. Ir. Kathy Steppe); django, leaflet, sqlite, D3 JavaScript module, Python programming language, Pca, cluster analysis, skyfield, HTML, CSS.

Many thanks to: forest ranger Eddy Ulenaers, scientist Marjel van den Boer, Dr. Kathy Steppe (Boslab/Bosland National Park), arborist Sven Boets, writer and artist Achilles Cools, Kristof Sprengers, Carola Van Hove, Kris Van der Steen, Paulien Maes, Marian Mertens, Rose Govaerts, Karen Segers (De Liereman team), Peter Noben, Sofie Regniers, Jef De Winter and his team of arborists, Marc Vogels (Kalmthoutse Heide team).

With the support of: Vlaamse Overheid – Kunsten, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Arts Numériques, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, De Vroente, Landschap De Liereman, Nationaal Park Bosland.

View online : https://www.anaisberck.be/

Vertical Stories workshop

Donatella — 2025-09-08T09:52:35Z

In the framework of the installation Vertical Stories by Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein and Livia Cahn in the window of Constant, the artists will animate an informal and speculative get together.

It will be a collective reflection on what the underground holds. We're calling on neighbors with stories, local historians, amateur archaeologist, geologists, and sand enthusiasts to attempt to read the mineral document in the vitrine.

The workshop is free, but the places are limited, so please register in advance by sending an e-mail to peter@constantvzw.org

For the information about the accessibility of Constant's office, please have a look on our accessibility page.

Constant_V : Vertical Stories

Peter Westenberg — 2025-07-17T09:28:52Z

Installation by Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein and Livia Cahn
Opening: Thursday 28 August 2025, 18:00 - 21:00

To build upwards, takes a lot of digging down.
Brussels is partly built on sand (SiO2, silicon dioxide). This sand was probably deposited by a tropical sea or a delta. In the Middle Ages, sand was extracted from the subsurface of Saint-Gilles, near the rue du fort. The sand was used for construction works and to level the ground. The expansion of the city, put a stop to this extraction at the end of the 19th century.

Multi story buildings and even urban agriculture, embody the upwards pull of the city. The Brussels sprout was supposedly first cultivated in St-Gilles to grow vertically as the space for growing crops also diminished with the densification of the urban fabric. These are just two soil histories that depend on the underground to take root in this neighborhood.

Bringing sand into the vertical plane of the shop window is an invitation to ask questions about the history and the composition of the underlying underground that typically lies underfoot and out of sight. The speculative archival document in the window is mineral.

The presence of sand in the window also recalls one of the ongoing applications of the mineral extraction of sand in the production of glass. It highlights the omnipresence of geological materials in the urban context.

Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein and Livia Cahn met in Lubumbashi (DRC) in 2023 around questions related to extraction. Alexandre is an artist and writer, currently in residency in Brussels. Livia is conducting research on the underground for a PhD in social sciences.

On Wednesday 17 September we organise an informal and speculative get together, a collective reflection on what the underground holds. We're calling on neighbors with stories, local historians, amateur archaeologist, geologists, and sand enthusiasts to attempt to read the mineral document in the vitrine.

Cilia Workshop

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-05-26T20:04:41Z

a tiny wiggly hair on a cell
transmitting motions
for animals, plants, fungi...
to sense vibrations

|/|\ A research afternoon of crafty imaginings ||/|

Cilia have many shapes and sizes. They exist on a different scale. We will look at all kinds of representations of these haircells and speculate on potential physical forms with all kinds of hands-on materials
We will also look at haptic feedback, integrating sound induced vibrations into our creations, with gentle tweaking of prepared code and electronics.

Please enroll by e-mail: wendy@constantvzw.org

Constant_V: Cilia

Donatella — 2025-04-28T14:15:36Z

Opening installation: Thursday 15/05/2025 from 18:00 on
Cilia Centric Workshop: Friday 27/06/2025 15:00 -> 18:00

cilia:

a tiny wiggly hair on a cell
transmitting motions
for animals, plants, fungi...
to sense vibrations

This installation in the window of Constant invites to you to inhabit the universe of cilia*. What can they look like? What will they do? The experimental shapes will transform (sound)waves. Their speculative outlines defying proportions will invite you to fantasize and play. Research in progress by Wendy Van Wynsberghe*, the window will change in tune with it, over time.

This research is developed in the framework of Constant's ongoing trajectory called Otherwordly communications, in which we look at inter-species coexistence and their different arrangements of life. By life in this context we mean biological, geological, digital, immaterial, time/space or beyond. With a wish to find other ways of relating and engaging with technology than through damage, we look closer at the less obvious communication streams and currents happening around us.

* Wendy Van Wynsberghe creates moments of zooming in on our multispecies existence, by looking at protocols and prompting interactions, as non extractive as possible. She loves to tinker, digitally and in the physical (textile, sound...) realm.

Accessibility
The office of constant does not have an accessible toilet at the moment. You can find further details on the accessibility of our spaces here.
If you require information or assistance, please contact us sending a mail at: info@constantvzw.org

Workshop : 01L():{Liquid Larvae Robot Specimens}

imane — 2025-03-31T09:23:10Z

Keywords: workshop, electronics, cooling oil, data centers, speculation, robotics.

Artist Igor Bobbeldijk invites you to a session where we will be diving into how to build robotic creatures capable of living in a special oil used as a cooling technology —supposedly more efficient than traditional air conditioning and ventilation systems in spaces such as data centers.

As data centers become critical vectors of oppression, at what point does material resistance become necessary? In this session we will explore this science fiction-like under-oil environment from different angles; both earnest and absurdist speculation are welcome.

After an introduction by Igor, we will discuss strategies and make sketches. The generated material may become part of the ongoing installation in the window of Constant.

When
Join us on Saturday 12 April from 11:00 to 15:00 at Constant's Studio.

Where
Address: Chaussée de Jette 388 Jetsesteenweg, 1081 Koekelberg, Brussels.

Accessibility
The Studio is fully accessible for wheelchairs. More info about accessibility

Language
The workshop will be held in English.

Registration
If you would like to participate, please send an email to imane@constantvzw.org

Workshop outline:

Introduction to the under-oil world.
At what point does material resistance become necessary?
Discussion of possible tactics of sabotage
- Points of entry
- Propulsion / moving under-oil
- Executing actions
- Escape?
Sketching session: We will follow the discussion by taking some of the problems and solutions that were discussed and put them into sketches.
DIY robotics: Building We will put together some electronics and make some "3D sketches".

Participants are welcome to bring some old, obsolete tech (phone,camcorder,..) to tinker with.