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“Vortex – Cortex” is an exhibition in two parts, like the hemispheres of the brain or the Earth, the ventricles and auricles of the heart; Temporary Isolation Part 1 is installed in the Sart Tilman Open-Air Museum; Temporary Isolation Part 2 is installed in the Gouvernement aan de Maas, the provincial government building in Dutch Limbourg, in Maastricht. The device created by Djos Janssens on the 2^nd floor of the student residences is also a bipolar arrangement: two rooms, like refuges, open onto either side of the vast space of the former university restaurant kitchens. They form two rooms

for reflection/contemplation, one with the whiteness and starkness of an operating theatre, the other plunged into the half-light of an initiatory cave. The spectator is invited to pass from one to the other, into light or darkness. The path is spatial and becomes that of thought, which progresses and brought into motion by the work. Djos Janssens perfectly harnesses this role-play: he borrows

elements from an “open” demonstration, but it is not a discourse with certain meanings, more fragments chosen from an interrogative “Weltanschauung”. Everyone can take part in this: in formal terms the work is highly pared down, yet it provokes a semantic eruption. Through a subtle interplay of oppositions and encounters (heart/brain, individual/cosmos, etc.), the artist arranges fragments of a romantic declaration, weaving ties between the elements of a couple, the individuals who comprise it and the way this relationship interacts with its biotope, in the literal and wider sense of the term.

For Maastricht, the relationship with the environment was highlighted from the outset, starting with the office area. Secondly, the relationships between the office colleagues, through their geographical context were considered in the form of questions, phrases, words, etc. Device: two corridors opposite each other six metres long by one-and-a-half metres wide and two-and-a-half metres high.

The glazing in each corridor are covered in green transparent film and on the ground, two imitation grass mats are placed with two armchairs on them, facing the windows. In the left-hand corridor,

there is an audio headset with a sound track composed by Nicolas Dechêne.

Jean Housen