Migrating Churches (Wintam)

Saint Margaret’s Church of Wintam, Belgium, 2024

After the desecration of the Saint Margaret’s Church in Wintam at the beginning of 2020, the building was given a new function as a museum and multi-purpose space. The church remains of great significance to the inhabitants of Wintam: who have been baptized, married, or have had to say goodbye to a loved one there. Some residents expressed a wish to make this meaning memory of this place tangible through an art commission. A participatory trajectory was formed in consultation with the municipality of Bornem and Nieuwe Opdrachtgevers. ‘Migrating Churches’ aims to make the church’s new function and rich history visible, both inside and outside. The four shutters in the church tower are replaced by windows composed of specially colored, dichroic glass. This glass type is transparent in one color and reflective in another color at the same time. The new windows reveal graphic drawings that refer to the rich identity and history of the church of Wintam, which used to be located at Nattenhaasdonck. A lamp in the tower illuminates the windows at night, turning the tower into a beacon of light. The interaction of light and shapes establishes an ephemeral connection with the immediate surroundings of the church, an analogy that is also translated into the interior. Inside, at the altar, a luminous sculpture combines the same type of colored glass with brick material from the archaeological site in Nattenhaasdonck. This installation consists of 3 glass lamps. A new light that heralds the new story of the church.