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Papers by Studio Berlinde De Bruyckere

It Almost Seemed a Lilly” (Veurne: Hannibal Publishing), 2018

In 2018 Berlinde De Bruyckere made a series of installations in connection with the conservation ... more In 2018 Berlinde De Bruyckere made a series of installations in connection with the conservation of the fragile Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen, a special aemulatio on these unique sixteenth-century treasures from the Low Countries. Enclosed Gardens are typically retables that were created within a female religious context. Filled with silk flowers and embellished with pearls and gems, they take the form of extraordinary flowering gardens. Secreted within the bosom of this spiritual cottage industry are ensembles of clay statues with a Christian iconography, like the Annunciation, but also handwritten prayers, miniatures on parchment, textile-wrapped relics and wax medallions. The project to conserve these late medieval mixed-media artefacts has not only provided many new insights into the creative processes, the religious purposes and the origins of the materials, but it has also inspired contemporary artists.
The history of this unique hybrid phenomenon – the pieces are domestic altars as well as reliquary cases and curiosity cabinets – is enjoying an exceptional renaissance in Berlinde De Bruyckere’s monumental sculptures. How will we perceive these huge installations with their amorphous parts consisting of pieces of fabric and weather-beaten wax? What artistic need is expressed through this contemporary interpretation of the spiritual metaphor of seclusion?

I will deal with these questions in four parts: making and growing, the nest and nesting, mirror versus vocalization, and camouflage or Echo’s sacrifice. My reflections are variations on a single related key – the making of a garden – and, in this sense, they are comparable to the four-part suites that, like the Enclosed Gardens, were also created in the sixteenth century. Suites comprise a succession of self-contained movements with alternating fast and slow passages. The composition of both the historic Enclosed Gardens and De Bruyckere’s contemporary works betrays a similarly personal rhythm, a characteristic accumulation of parts (à suivre) and striking alternations between art brut and refinement. And is it not unusual for a suite to also be imbued with a spatial connotation, just as De Bruyckere’s retables allude to the stately overmantels that evoke imposing spaces in our minds?

It Almost Seemed a Lilly” (Veurne: Hannibal Publishing), 2018

In 2018 Berlinde De Bruyckere made a series of installations in connection with the conservation ... more In 2018 Berlinde De Bruyckere made a series of installations in connection with the conservation of the fragile Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen, a special aemulatio on these unique sixteenth-century treasures from the Low Countries. Enclosed Gardens are typically retables that were created within a female religious context. Filled with silk flowers and embellished with pearls and gems, they take the form of extraordinary flowering gardens. Secreted within the bosom of this spiritual cottage industry are ensembles of clay statues with a Christian iconography, like the Annunciation, but also handwritten prayers, miniatures on parchment, textile-wrapped relics and wax medallions. The project to conserve these late medieval mixed-media artefacts has not only provided many new insights into the creative processes, the religious purposes and the origins of the materials, but it has also inspired contemporary artists.
The history of this unique hybrid phenomenon – the pieces are domestic altars as well as reliquary cases and curiosity cabinets – is enjoying an exceptional renaissance in Berlinde De Bruyckere’s monumental sculptures. How will we perceive these huge installations with their amorphous parts consisting of pieces of fabric and weather-beaten wax? What artistic need is expressed through this contemporary interpretation of the spiritual metaphor of seclusion?

I will deal with these questions in four parts: making and growing, the nest and nesting, mirror versus vocalization, and camouflage or Echo’s sacrifice. My reflections are variations on a single related key – the making of a garden – and, in this sense, they are comparable to the four-part suites that, like the Enclosed Gardens, were also created in the sixteenth century. Suites comprise a succession of self-contained movements with alternating fast and slow passages. The composition of both the historic Enclosed Gardens and De Bruyckere’s contemporary works betrays a similarly personal rhythm, a characteristic accumulation of parts (à suivre) and striking alternations between art brut and refinement. And is it not unusual for a suite to also be imbued with a spatial connotation, just as De Bruyckere’s retables allude to the stately overmantels that evoke imposing spaces in our minds?