Big things come in tiny packages: How Belgian Artist is giving life to outdated Belgian boot-scrapers

Coronavirus has paused our lives and with restrictions, our social contacts have been limited to a bare minimum. Here's how Elke Lemmens has found a way to build connections during the ongoing crisis. She is using her artistic skills to bring ordinary lives — and extraordinary stories — out into the open by giving disused boot-scrapers a second act. Before the advent of doormats, boot scrapers were located near the front steps of most European and American buildings to scrape dirt from the bottom of shoes before entering a place.

Belgian artist Elke Lemmens installs a miniature scene of a girl on a horse at the seaside into a boot scraper in Antwerp, Belgium, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020. Lemmens is transforming disused boot scrapers in the port city of Antwerp into miniature scenes depicting what is important in the lives of the owners of the house. (Photo | AP) 

A miniature scene of people standing on top of a globe is set into a boot scraper outside a front door in Antwerp. (Photo | AP)

Lemmens will use the grant to install at least 50 miniature scenes in the old niches outside homes that families once used to clean off their shoes. A wooden cigar box holding miniature figures in the atelier of Belgian artist Elke Lemmens, prior to being installed into a boot scraper. (Photo | AP)

Belgian artist Elke Lemmens holds a miniature of a girl on a horse as she installs a scene. (Photo | AP)

Elke Lemmens works in her atelier prior to installing miniature scenes into boot scrapers in Antwerp. (Photo | AP)

A miniature scene of a girl on a horse at the seaside is set into a boot scraper. (Photo | AP)

One boot-scraper depicts the prison cell of Belgian writer Roger van de Velde, who was held in a psychiatric prison because of a painkiller addiction. (Photo | AP)

Belgian artist Elke Lemmens shows a miniature scene of the cell of Belgian writer Roger van de Velde . (Photo | AP)

Belgian artist Elke Lemmens lays on the sidewalk as she installs a miniature scene into a boot scraper. (Photo | AP)

These dusty architectural remnants of an age when muddy roads and the absence of sidewalks made rubbing one's footwear over metal a prerequisite for going indoors blend into cityscapes from Europe to the United States, failing to attract notice since doormats replaced them. (Photo | AP)

Stef Pottums sits on his step next to a miniature scene of the cell of Belgian writer Roger van de Velde in a boot scraper in Antwerp, Belgium. (Photo | AP)