Berlinde De Bruyckere
February 3 – May 26, 2024
Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s large-scale sculptures and installations of wax, wood, textile, metal and horse hide are executed in an unmistakable artistic style. Grappling with the existential human condition, De Bruyckere’s work addresses human vulnerability and fragility, desire and suffering, resilience and transformation. The comprehensive exhibition No Life Lost was the first presentation of the work of De Bruyckere in Sweden.
About the Exhibition
In our crisis-ridden contemporary age when human existence is becoming increasingly precarious, Berlinde De Bruyckere’s sensitive examination of our common existential ground takes on a particular urgency. Characterised by distorted organic forms and bodies, De Bruyckere’s work has an intrusive almost eerie materiality.
Berlinde De Bruyckere was born in 1964 in Ghent, Belgium where she lives and works. During the last 20 years, she has exhibited extensively internationally, including celebrated solo exhibitions at MO.CO in Montpellier, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Torino, Bonnefanten in Maastricht, Sara Hilden Art Museum in Tampere, Leopold Museum in Vienna, Kunsthaus Bregenz, ACCA in Melbourne, e.a. In 2013, she represented Belgium at the 55th Venice Biennale, where she will now return for the 60th edition of the Biennale with an official Collateral Event for the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore.
– De Bruyckere’s art is a meditation both on a bygone era and our at times somewhat dystopian present. Artipelag has long followed her art practice and in 2019, Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work Rodt, 6 januari, 2012 was incorporated into our permanent outdoor collection, Sculpture in Nature. We are very happy to introduce her art practice to the Swedish public, Museum Director Bo Nilsson says.
Including sculptures, installations and works on paper, No Life Lost spans from 1995 until today. A core theme in the exhibition is the ambiguity of the human condition and the fundamental human search for transformation, transcendence and reconciliation in the face of mortality. With its diversity of materials and extensive time span, No Life Lost is a comprehensive presentation of De Bruyckere’s art practice, which, despite widespread international success, has not yet been shown in Sweden.
Berlinde De Bruyckere’s idiom has a strong historical anchoring. Rooted in the Catholic spiritual tradition, the Flemish Renaissance has exerted a profound influence on her art. resulting in extensive explorations of Christian legends and archaic myths. De Bruyckere layers these existing histories with new narratives suggested by current events. Her work also displays a special relationship to nature, often taking the form of “stigmatised” trees ravaged by the environmental destruction that constitutes one of today’s burning issues. Animals occupy an exceptional position in De Bruyckere’s art, the horse being a recurring motif.
With the support of the Government of Flanders.
