Unexpected Encounters: Fascinating Public Art by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh

For almost two decades, Belgian duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh have been turning open landscapes into places of amusement and quiet wonder. Their work sits somewhere between sculpture and architecture, but never fully settles into either, and that’s exactly what makes it so interesting.

Among our favorite recent pieces is Shelter (2023), a beautifully simple intervention where a pitched wooden roof is suspended between the trunks of a cluster of trees. Another installation in a similar spirit is Tabernacle (2021), a sweeping, tent-like canopy that hangs in a soft, sculptural curve.

Their most famous work, though, is Reading Between the Lines, from 2011. This chapel made of stacked steel plates acts as a large-scale optical illusion: solid from afar, but increasingly transparent as you approach, dissolving into the landscape like a mirage. A more recent highlight, Inverse Ruin (completed this year), flips the idea of preservation inside out. Temple-like fragments float inside a geometric scaffolding frame, creating the sensation of stepping into the outline of a ruin rather than its remains.

Across all these pieces, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh invite viewers to rethink what a structure can be — not just something to look at, but something to look through, walk around and experience as part of the environment itself.

You can discover more of the duo’s captivating installations over on their website and Instagram.

More art on the grid Gijs Van Vaerenbergh’s website