Susan Philipsz: The Lower World: MUDAM, Aquatunnel, Luxembourg

Scottish artist Susan Philipsz (1965, Glasgow) explores the sculptural and emotional dimensions of sound through her immersive installations. For the Luxembourg Urban Garden (LUGA), and in collaboration with The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (MUDAM), Philipsz has been invited to create a site-specific work for the Aquatunnel –a 900-metre-long underground passageway running beneath the Ville Haute, connecting the Pétrusse valley with the Pfaffenthal district. Originally built to collect waste water, the tunnel was also designed for civil defence purposes, a dual function that plays an important role in Philipsz’s sound installation The Lower World.

The motif of the underworld occupies a central place in Greek mythology. Initially conceived as a space physically beneath the surface of the accessible world, it later evolved into a para-mortal realm inhabited by supernatural beings and spirits of the dead. The Lower World draws upon these mythological narratives, associating modern sirens of a city’s defence system –designed to alert its inhabitants to imminent danger – with the ancient Greek sirens who lured sailors to doom with their song.

The work fuses the urban architecture of the Aquatunnel to with the legend of Melusina, a female fresh water spirit from European folklore and a prominent legend in Luxembourg founding myth. As the story goes, Count Siegfried, while hunting in the narrow valley of the Alzette, was drawn by a haunting melody to Melusina, who appeared to him as a beautiful maiden perched on the Bock, a rocky promontory now considered the historical city centre of Luxembourg. Siegfried proposed marriage and Melusina accepted on the condition that he grant her absolute privacy one day a week. Over come by curiosity, Siegfried eventually broke his promise and spied on Melusina as she was bathing on the Bock and discovered her true form: that of a mermaid. At that moment, Melusina and her bath were swallowed by the earth, never to be seen by Siegfried again. Legend holds that every seven years, Melusina returns to the Bock in human form calling for her release and that she circles the rock, wailing, when danger looms over the city of Luxembourg.

The Lower World, a sound installation composed and recorded by the artist, is transmitted through loud speaker positioned at intervals throughout the Aquatunnel. The layered voices, alternately melodic, melancholic, dissonant and haunting, create a sonic stream that ebbs and flows like waves, filling the subterranean space. ‘With this work, I want to fill the Aquatunnel with sound, work with the peculiarities of the space and encourage visitors to reflection their surroundings through a variety of associations,’ says Philipsz.

Images:
Installation view, Susan Philipsz, The Lower World, 2025, at Aquatunnel Luxembourg, Photo Marion Dessard. © Mudam Luxembourg