HORST Arts & Music Festival, in collaboration with TICK TACK, proudly presents ‘MELTDOWN’ — a monumental new work by Marilyn Minter, one of the most influential artists of our time.

Known for her subversive explorations of beauty, power, and desire, Minter will transform the ENGIE Electrabel Cooling Tower into a larger-than-life, immersive visual experience, challenging conventions of femininity, glamour, identity and public space.

Co-produced by TICK TACK and created exclusively for HORST, MELTDOWN is a new, site-specific composition built from re-edited adaptations of Minter’s existing video works, unseen footage, and unpublished materials. Expanding her seductive yet disruptive visual language into architectural scale, the piece offers a cinematic loop that is both raw and hypnotic — glistening, confrontational and uncomfortably intimate.

Set against the striking industrial backdrop of HORST—a festival that continuously redefines the intersection of art, music, and architecture—Minter’s work aligns seamlessly with this year’s exhibition theme, “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Inspired by the 1918 poem by Sara Teasdale, the theme contemplates nature’s indifference to human desire and destruction. In this context, Minter’s work becomes a powerful mirror: shimmering with beauty while dripping with decay. Her lush, hyperreal surfaces expose the paradox of desire: how we’re drawn to what consumes us, and how beauty, in excess, begins to unravel.

Executed in collaboration with Beam Inc. and 3Made AV, the projection will harness seven state-of-the-art beamers—delivering a staggering 350.000 lumens of light power. The result: razor-sharp, crystal-clear imagery on an immense scale, transforming the cooling tower into a pulsating, immersive beacon of light and subversion.

Artists: Marilyn Minter