I built up this image of her while visiting Jeanne: A Nun's Room, a unique installation by Scottish artist Paul Morris in a small, basement room in the EU quarter. “You walk into her room and get to know her; she’s a semi-real person,” he says. “It’s like anyone’s room with its own distinctive features and character.”

Morris, who has been living in Brussels for eight years, started creating the character more than a year ago. He trawled flea markets, bought items off the internet and newspapers ads and tracked down members of church and state, searching for the details that would bring the room to life.

As you look around the room, you slowly realise how many of Jeanne’s belongings there are to discover in this small space, from the unsurprising possessions of a nun to some that may raise a few eyebrows. Without giving too much away, be sure to poke around a bit, looking underneath objects, opening drawers and generally enjoying the guilty pleasure of voyeurism. Many pieces aren’t immediately visible, but every one has a story to tell.

One of the pictures on the wall, for instance, is a painting of a woman on a bridge next to a watermill; this is the object that triggered the whole project. When he found the painting, signed “Jeanne Etienne, 1939”, Morris realised he’d found his starting point for developing the character. Creating the room, he says, was “a form of writing,” as he decided who this woman would be and what eccentricities she would have.

Not that she only exists as Morris sees her. The installation, which has already shown at two other sites in Brussels, prompts people to “make up all kinds of stories about her,” Morris says with a smile.

The installation is now on show at Yaruna, an ethnic clothes designer shop. Morris has worked with the shop’s owner before on art projects, and they plan to keep the basement as a permanent exhibition space.

In fact, the next fictitious room is already in the works: as of October, Jeanne’s room will disappear and be replaced by one belonging to a young Parisian seamstress. And then, who knows? Maybe Antwerp, says Morris, “somewhere I haven’t yet exhibited”.

Until 14 October
Yaruna
Waversesteenweg 214
Brussels
www.anunsroom.com