Mobile Medium University Revisited (floating U.I.A.)
1972-1982
Mixed Media, 110 x 60 x 25 cm.
Materials: wood, plastic, paint, plexi
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp, Bruikleen UA, Universiteit Antwerpen (Inv. no. S0114).
Mobile Medium University (Floating U.I.A) is one of Deleu’s first architectural proposals (1972; M HKA has the ‘revisited’ version, 1982). The idea was to use three brightly painted aircraft carriers (this was the time of the Vietnam War) for a perpetual tour of Antwerp University College’s entire activities. This theme of mobility and displacement is present in Deleu’s Proposals (1972–1980), four of which are now in the M HKA collection. The series formulates outlandish but credible anarchic approaches to issues still waiting to be addressed, such as the environment (e.g. city agriculture), the social contract (e.g. non-programmed TV broadcasts) or public memory (e.g. re-cycling historical monuments as social housing).