Tower

A 22-metre-high bronze sculpture by the Belgian artist Thomas Lerooy was installed in Duinbergen (Knokke-Heist) on 16 June 2020. The sculpture, entitled Tower, is Lerooy’s first permanent sculpture in the public space.

Tower consists of 49 bronze heads – busts – all facing the sea. The faces have been manipulated and abstracted in such a way that the noses, eyes, ears and chins are all on the same vertical axis, levelling out the differences and making everyone look alike.

As is often the case in Lerooy’s work, Tower, which can be seen as a sequel to Lerooy’s earlier works Obelrisk (2007) and Never Listen to Your Best Friend (2007), refers to the transience, the ephemerality of life and the meaning of existence – or the lack of it. The bronze will patinate and age naturally under the influence of time, the salt from the sea, and the wind.

The title of the work is as simple as it is powerful. Tower refers to today’s society, which is made up of various elements that are more valuable together than separately – a society in which we depend on each other, in which we need to listen to each other and make compromises. Just as a child stacks blocks to make a tower, Lerooy stacks heads to create something meaningful.

If you'd like to know more about the sculpture, click here. Tower is installed in a public space and can be viewed for free.