The Impact of the Sea on Our Mental and Physical Health

Following a career of ten and twenty years, respectively, as a landscaper and arborist, Vincent Braeckman recently moved in an artistic direction. Successfully. At the 2022 Ghent Floralies, he was praised by both the international artistic jury and the international press jury, which awarded him the Prize of the Future for the most visionary stall. Braeckman designed a futuristic forest containing numerous optical illusions. According to the jury, the design fitted the theme of the Floralies perfectly: the private garden as paradise. “He mixes nature with art by integrating perspectives, illusions and projections into his work,” the jury said.

Since then, the artist has made several ‘in situ’ installations on climate change, a floral installation in the courtyard garden of the Meir Palace in Antwerp, an installation on water eutrophication at the Nerdland Festival and a living willow tree that hugs people (instead of the other way round) with the help of electronics in its branches. For The Expo by ArcelorMittal, Braeckman will tackle a study by the Ghent University on the impact of the sea (and the aerosols created at the water-air divide) on our mental and physical health.