Shivay La Multiple has transformed the vibrations in this manhole square into a work of art like a vision. As an ode to this place, he wrote the poem Cette apparition vient-elle du jardin de l’âme? (Does this apparition come from the garden of the soul?), which is also the title of the artwork. It is inspired by a Rumi poem. Mohamed Jalal ad-Din Balkhi Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian philosopher, poet and Sufi mystic, wrote religious poetry centring on the love of and desire for the divine.From the well rise two arms of “water” bringing a flower offering. An exuberantly decorated gourd forms the vase, while the flowers rest in a holder that resembles the seed pod of a lotus flower. Shivay La Multiple regards the gourd sculpture under the clock as an altar – not in a Christian, but in a syncretic sense. Their spirituality is a mix of elements from different religions and cultures. The sculpture, which contains wine from St Catharinadal, fuses the world of the monastery with all kinds of faiths beyond. What brings them together is what some call God, others call the Great Whole. Like the bell, the gourd is used around the world both as a musical instrument and as a ritual object, including within the Winti tradition. The two conch shells under the bell symbolise coming together; they summon and spread the word of the ancestors.

The church bell has an eventful history. Originally, it hung in the former convent of Sint-Catharinadal in Breda. During the Eighty Years’ War, the nuns had to flee the convent. This clock moved with them. During the Second World War, they dug it upside down and used it as a feeder to prevent the Germans from confiscating it.