Manon Lambeens
Do you speak tunnel language?

Graphic designer Manon Lambeens graduated from KASK & Conservatorium last year with her project Het Sociale Spel (the social game). With one part of it, Tunneltaal tunnel language), she also subsequently won the Henry Van de Velde Space Award 2022. Those who are curious can visit for themselves. The tunnel in question is located on the bicycle highway between Aarschot and Leuven. 

ONRUST
We already knew obscene language (which tranlates to ‘fence’ language in dutch), but tunnel language is something new for us.

MANON LAMBEENS
The idea came about very naturally. Like many, I often went for walks during lockdown. My usual route took me through a certain railroad tunnel, where all kinds of texts were written on the walls: Kanye 2020, Lien heart Peter, things like that. Sometimes with political overtones, too: Why do we give money to wars and not to the hungry. In this way, I began to see the tunnel as (an admittedly forbidden) notepad where especially young people write down their thoughts. After all, it forms the connection between two youth centers and is also located at the entrance to a school.

ONRUST
That's a lot of potential authors.

MANON LAMBEENS
Yes, but that's also how I see it. For me, design is primarily a tool to translate things, a communication tool. I want to involve others in my practice and thus initiate something that transcends the purely formal. So I started imagining a social project, where young people could express their creativity together. I myself, as a designer, would provide them with tools. Therefore, by experimenting with helvetica letters, I first developed a number of stencils. No ready-made malles, but rather an accessible skeleton that people could work with to design their own typeface. Sol Lewitt once said, “Everyone draws a line differently.” Well, those stencils invite you to fill in the missing links, each in his own way.

ONRUST
And so you set to work!

MANON LAMBEENS
You're getting ahead of yourself there. There was a second element that caught my attention. At night, that tunnel was a pretty unpleasant place. It wasn't particularly well-lit, and as a young female, you sometimes walked there with a frightened heart. Something could be done about that, I thought. I was inspired by Daan Roosegaarde who designed a luminous bicycle pool in North Brabant. That alternative approach to lighting appealed to me. After a search, I finally ended up with the company ACB Group, who produce road surface paint with phosphorus pigment. Initially, I wasn't sure if it was ecologically sound. After all, paint is still a chemical thing. However, the advantages turned out to outweigh the disadvantages. First, the paint has a very long lifespan. It absorbs energy from the sun and can give off up to ten hours of light. There is also a big difference with street lights. You only see the glow when you are close to it, which gives less light pollution.

ONRUST
So stencils, check. paint, check. Here come the youngsters!

MANON LAMBEENS
We're not there yet. That paint costs a lot of money, of course. The tunnel in question is on the territory of Rotselaar and I was able to convince the municipality to sponsor it. I also had to ask permission from Infrabel, the owners of the tunnel. Between dream and reality there are a lot of laws and practical objections. By the way, it wasn't easy with the paint either. You have to mix it yourself with exactly the right proportions and then you only have half an hour until it hardens. And then the paint turned out to be runny in the first tests. Fortunately, the company quickly adjusted the formula and it was smoother painting from then on.

ONRUST
Ok, another try then. Are the youngsters coming now?

MANON LAMBEENS
They came! As a pilot project, I first invited my own scout group so that I could finetune on things with groups and people i knew. Then I started explaining what graphic design can be in every third grade class in the nearby school. That resulted in a collaboration of more than 300 people, admittedly spread out over time, because there were still a lot of pandemic measures in place at the time. But that's precisely why it was so important. It brought life and people felt reconnected with each other. Afterwards, a girl told me, "This year nothing went on: no end-of-year trip, no proclamation, no class activities... All my memories of my sixth grade are attached to this tunnel; it will remain a memento.

ONRUST
That's nice. Do you have good memories of it yourself?

MANON LAMBEENS
For me personally, it was quite an emotional discharge. After all that isolation and loneliness just being able to paint and getting busy with palette knife, fridge and music on the side... It was quite intense. Fortunately I could count on a lot of creative friends who spontaneously came to help. Not only to guide the young people, but also in terms of documentation. Benina Hu took photos and Floris Leempoels filmed. An illustrator friend, Thorsten Staes, assisted me creatively and pedagogically.

ONRUST
Happy with the final results?

MANON LAMBEENS
I had suggested beforehand to write something you can still be proud of after ten years. The result is very diverse. It includes a riddle, movie quotes, slogans, interacting with one another or not. Something like “Stay safe” or “Safety is for wimps” echoes the time in which it was made. Others came out funny. ‘Drama llama,’ formed with little llamas, or ‘Pallet head with a forklift.’ I myself wrote “ça va?” on it.

ONRUST
And, ça va?

MANON LAMBEENS
Certainly!