Homo Faber – In Citta’
Fondazione Berengo Art Space - Murano
Burning Falls – Koen Vanmechelen
As part of the
- In Città
section of - Homo Faber 2022 - at
the Fondazione Berengo Art Space, in Murano - Adriano Berengo presents Belgian artist’s Koen Vanmechelen exhibition Burning
Falls – until May 15. Thirty
fantastical creatures made from the striking combination of glass and Carrara marble, after their success at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during
the Seduzione exhibition are enriched
here by a number of previously unseen artworks.
Koen
Vanmechelen – White Medusa – 2021
The Medusa,
the gorgon whose hair was replaced by snakes whose poison could revive the dead
- Vanmechelen draws an astute
parallel by noting how chicken eggs are used in modern science as the basis for
vaccines and medicines. His Medusa thus becomes a metaphor for humanity itself,
imbued with the power to kill as well as the ability to bring new life.
"If Burning
Falls can break down the walls that divide us today, it will create a
transparency in which we will recognise ourselves in
each
other,"
Koen Vanmechelen
Inspired by the collections of ancient statuary from the Gallerie
degli Uffizi in Florence, the sculptures in the Tempation
series depict emperors, philosphers, warriers, heroes and gods but also
ordinary men and women sculpted in white Statuario marble. Their heads are covered with egg fragments in
glass. From the egg, hybrid creatures
are generated. They represent an
invitation to escape from the limits of rational thought and codified norms, to
follow the challenge of change and let oneself travel to unexpected
contaminations, and to finally discover oneself freely, with an open mind.
Koen Vanmechelen - Temptation – Series - 2021
Koen Vanmechelen - Temptation – Series - 2021
Koen Vanmechelen - Temptation – Antinous - 2021
A tiger is lying on a
carpet of chicken feathers. She seems unaware of the treat to her. Swords are attacking, yet they are
transparent, implicitly harmless, at least for now. The tiger for the moment
it is strong – or indifferent – able to handle the threat and survive. But for how much longer? The predator has
become the prey. But the balance is precarious: as soon as a certain limit is
exceeded, the tiger, the personification of Nature will attack.
Koen Vanmechelen – Domestic Violence – 2021
A child holds in his arms
a creature that he evidently cannot keep under control. These work reference the iconic 19th-century
sculpture by Adriano Cecioni – Bambino con Gallo 1868 – that is shown alongside
it recently at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
Koen Vanmechelen – Cosmopolitan Fossill II - 2021
"At the base of the evolutionary chain are crests,
claws and eggs: primordial elements, a metaphor for an ancestral world in a
perpetual struggle for survival. The snake crawls among them and recalls the
decadence resulting from original sin and the final judgement, its inevitable
consequence. Species evolved but were lost, in dissolution and
self-destruction, from generation to generation. A new segment intervened to
redirect evolutionary destiny: the virus. But out of potential destruction, new
life emerged, an egg from which a child was generated, blindfolded because it
was still unaware.”
Koen Vanmechelen
Koen Vanmechelen – Formula
Segreta - 2021
Chido Govera and
Koen Vanmechelen
Laurel Saint-Pierre
Koen Vanmechelen
Vesta Mechelse Cubalaya – 11th Generation Cosmopolitan
Chicken Project 2021
These two mummies
represent the twenty-third generation of the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, born
from the cross between the Mechelse Maatiaskana-CCPP22 and the Padovana hen. The mummies, presented together with two
sarcophagi as archaeological finds, rise to the rank of sacred relics. Their presence testifies to both the link
with past generations and the possibility of a further rebirth, a new
existence.
Vesta Mechelse Cubalaya – 11th Generation Cosmopolitan
Chicken Project 2021
Special Guests
Bella and Laura Bellucci
