The annual major sculpture expo in The Hague in 2015 is called 'Vormidable'. In its own museum, on Lange Voorhout and at several satellite locations, Museum Beelden aan Zee shows how Flemish art experienced a true revival from the 1990s onwards. Panamarenko, De Bruyckere, Fabre, but also lesser-known names renewed sculpture - in two opposite ways.
Guest curator Stef van Bellingen (art centre WARP) is enthusiastic: nowhere, including Belgium, has there been such a major retrospective of contemporary Flemish sculpture before. The reason for the exhibition is the friendship year 'Dear Neighbours', the 20th anniversary of a cultural partnership between the Netherlands and Flanders.
Some 20 years ago is also the starting point of the works in the exhibition. In the early 1990s, Flemish art was on the rise. In 1992, Jan Hoet was guest curator of Documenta, Antwerp was cultural capital of Europe in 1993. It was the generation that came out of the academies around 1992-1993 that would renew Flemish art.
Jurassic Park
An innovation that went both ways. On the one hand, the artists used the wonders of digital technology. Panamarenko took inspiration from the animations in the film Jurassic Park, Wim Delvoye imitates the 'morphing' in Michael Jackson's clip 'Black or white' in his version of the Antwerp Brabo image.
On the other hand, artists resisted this digitisation. They put ceramic work back in the foreground, working figuratively and using old techniques and crafts. Plaster (inside) and bronze (outside) are the materials of the two matching angels with which Johan Tahon links the two exhibitions. Peter Buggenhout even incorporated animal innards into his sculptures.
Stromae
Van Bellingen has chosen to show more than one work by each artist to give a broader picture. The name 'Vormidable' naturally refers to the hit 'Formidable' by Belgian pop artist Stromae. Van Bellingen: 'I thought of Stromae, and of the form of sculpture. Inflecting and making neologisms, that's typically Flemish.'
We find this playfulness and double meaning a lot at the exhibition. Sven 't Jolle's Mens erger je niet players are also pawns without knowing it. Wesley Meuris placed facades both inside and outside the museum like building kits, behind which nothing appears to be hidden. Conversely, the small hall of Beelden aan Zee is full of maquettes, which do not serve to build anything larger, but stand as works of art in their own right.
Especially the open-air section on Lange Voorhout is considered a big crowd puller every year. Even those less versed in art history and appreciation can be entertained and challenged. Take a voluntary seat in Leo Copers' prison (after inserting a euro, you really can't get out for 5 minutes!) or inhale the spicy scents of Peter de Cupere's 'Earth car' covered with rakes and grass.
Selfie machine
The doomed 'selfie machine' is already Johan Creten's enormous owl at the head of Lange Voorhout. 'Le Grand Vivisecteur' is actually its name, and although the owl symbolises wisdom and invites you to sit down, it also carries symbolism of death and darkness, and its title refers to atrocities, committed for the sake of charity. Creten also names this ambiguity as typically Flemish: 'We all have something hybrid in us, something manic-depressive.'
- Queen Mathilde of Belgium and Queen Máxima jointly open the exhibition on Wednesday 20 May.
- More information on venues, times and prices at www.beeldenaanzee.nl
Photo above: Jesse by Sofie Muller, in the background Entrance Kit for Sculpture Garden III by Wesley Meuris (author photo)
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français 
