Maarten Vanden Eynde

From 1 April to 13 August 2023, the Delta will exhibit a selection of works from the collection of the Musée d'Ixelles in dialogue with pieces from the collection of the Province of Namur. The choice made mainly among recent acquisitions offers a sensitive journey through a plurality of approaches.

Currently closed for expansion and renovation work, the Musée d'Ixelles has an exceptional heritage of 12,000 works, which retrace contemporary Belgian art from 1890 to the present day. The collection of the Province of Namur, which is more modest, has been enriched, since the reopening of the Delta in 2019, by about thirty contemporary works thanks to the new acquisition policy focused on women artists, inspired by the career of Evelyne Axell, a Namur artist who is in the municipal and provincial collections.

The works respond to each other through conceptual, stylistic and historical comparisons. By resonating with each other, they bring out various themes and questions: the political dimension, the heritage of the pictorial tradition, the impact of popular culture, the domestic space, etc.

Through the creations of 38 Belgian and foreign artists, the exhibition evokes the diverse preoccupations of contemporary visual artists and highlights the challenges of two public collections.

Evelyne AXELL, Stefan BALLEUX, Léa BELOOUSSOVITCH, Marcel BERLANGER, BROGNON ROLLIN, Martine CANNEEL, John CLUYSENAAR, Anne DE GELAS, Delphine DEGUISLAGE, Edith DEKYNDT, Peter DOWNSBROUGH, Lili DUJOURIE, Gilbert FASTENAEKENS, Michel FRANÇOIS, Jann HAWORTH, Sophie KUIJKEN, Ariane LOZE, Charlotte MARCHAL, Xavier MARY, Jacqueline MESMAEKER, Henri MICHAUX, Jean-Luc MOERMAN, Renato NICOLODI, Juan PAPARELLA, Benoît PLATEUS, Sophie PODOLSKI, Georges ROUSSE, Aidan SALAKHOVA, Peter SAUL, Carolee SCHNEEMANN, Mimi SMITH, Trine SØNDERGAARD, Walter SWENNEN, Emmanuel VAN DER AUWERA, Maarten VANDEN EYDE, Marthe WERY, Sophie WHETTNALL, Cindy WRIGHT.

Horror Vacui (2016) is the follow up of The Invisible Hand (2015), a rubber copy of the right hand of the equestrian statue of Leopold II made by Thomas Vinçotte in 1914 and completed in 1926 after his death the previous year, which stands facing the Regentlaan (Boulevard du Régent) in Brussels, Belgium. The mould, necessarily made at dead of night, was taken to a former rubber plantation in Kasaï Province (DR Congo), where it was filled with natural rubber. Back in Belgium again, the cast of the hand was presented at Art Brussels, the contemporary art fair, completing the problematic circle of colonial treasure hunting in relation to historical fetishisation. The mould is now displayed on an old marble butchers scale, as lumps of meat, one half not weighing the same as the other half, although they are both empty.