Semafoor #02 is a false version of a forgotten language. Willem Boel made an interpretation of a signal tower with a specific code, or a language that does not exist. Semaphores, or optical telegraphs, were used throughout Europe before the telephone came into use around 1840. It was an intermediate form of communication between sending letters and sending a message by code along a cable. The semaphores were large structures, a bit like windmills, with arms, screens, or rotating panels with their own specific codes. Messages were copied from one semaphore to another. Almost nobody knew the codes, not even the signal men. Only the sender and receiver understood each other.
Semafoor #02 sends a clear message: I am a tower, copy me, watch me, listen to me. The work sends out a code through the round coloured disks: white and red, black and yellow, in different positions and combinations each time. In Willem Boel's practice, there is always a hint of mystery or doubt around his installations. That mystery is precisely what makes them attractive. Willem is the transmitter, and anyone who sees the tower is the receiver.