Maarten Vanden Eynde, Little Boy (2016) | courtesy: Meessen Gallery | photo: Philippe de Gobert

F**klore portrays the poetry and absurdity of the everyday, the known and the familiar, and invites us to consider the phenomenon of 'folklore' from an almost anthropological perspective. Traditional customs, crafts and narratives are commemorated with love, mild irony and an open gaze, in artworks varying from tapestries and sand sculptures to installations on finch sitting and processions. The exhibition features contributions from both domestic and foreign, and both established and up-and-coming artists. With humour and a (self-)critical eye, they raise questions about the value and constraints of traditions, about their ecological and social sustainability, about the unique and universal character of our idiosyncrasies and who ‘we’ are (and who we are not).

Including work from Mohammed Alani, Élodie Antoine, Bertille Bak, Kasper Bosmans, Elen Braga, Jean Brusselmans, Ignace Cami, Georges Counasse, Wim Delvoye, Gustave De Smet, Charlie De Voet, Laurent Geers, Jef Geys, René Heyvaert, Pieter Jennes, Eleni Kamma, Zhixin Angus Liao, Marcel Maeyer, Edward Messeyne, Malgorzata Mirga-Tas, Joost Pauwaert, Thomas Renwart, Kristof Santy, Delphine Somers, D.D. Trans, Charline Tyberghein, Dennis Tyfus, Edgard Tytgat, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Inès van den Kieboom, Filip Van Dingenen & David Shongo, Tinus Vermeersch, Leen Voet and Joseph Willaert.

Maarten Vanden Eynde, Fat Man (2016) | courtesy: Meessen Gallery | photo: Philippe de Gobert

Maarten Vanden Eynde, The Gadget (2016) | courtesy: Meessen Gallery | photo: Philippe de Gobert

'Fat Man', which takes its name from the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on 9 August 1945, is part of a series of three works named after the first three atomic bombs, The Gadget, Fat Man and Little Boy. The wooden bobbins used in the work, which vary in size, shape and colour, are made from different types of wood, symbolising the hands that helped create the nuclear weapons. Some look like shells or missiles. The bobbins are still attached to the lace, suggesting that the bomb that nestles at the centre of each work is in mid-explosion. There is a real and historic link between atomic bombs and bobbin lace. Both are made from raw materials – uranium and cotton respectively – that inflected world history and helped the United States become the most powerful nation on Earth. And in both cases, Congo and Belgium were involved. Most of the uranium ore that was used in the Manhattan project to develop The Gadget, Fat Man and Little Boy, came from the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo. It was initially exported to Belgium for the extraction of radium. Similarly, the cotton produced in America’s southern states, was planted, harvested and processed by enslaved people, most of whom came from the Kingdom of Kongo. It was then shipped to Britain and Belgium where it was turned into cloth and bobbin lace.