Elisabeth Tonnard

In September of 2025 I made a work for ‘Neighbor’, a fourteen meter wide light sculpture consisting of eight ‘digits’ mounted on 019, a former welding factory turned artist space in Gent, Belgium.

You can read more about the light sculpture and previous artists who contributed to it here.

My work is based on a text I once saw painted in large letters on the side of a building in Asbury Park, New Jersey: THIS TOO SHALL PASS. Later, I read this has its origin in Persian poetry. It is a verse with the status of being true – always, and everywhere. At the same time, it seems like a radically disruptive statement in our everyday lives, where we unthinkingly go on as if we controlled our environment.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS is on view from October 2nd until November 16th, 2025, every evening from sundown until 10 PM, on 019’s eastern facade. The address is Dok-Noord 5L in Gent. It can best be seen from across the dock (Schipperskaai). The work is 10.46 minutes long and runs in a continuous loop. With thanks to the curators, Arnout De Cleene and Michiel De Cleene. The video above is by Michiel De Cleene.