Exhibitions update

Icons: Worship and Adoration at the Kunsthalle Bremen examined how the concept of the icon unites aspects of the sacred, worship and the idea of transcendence. It invited visitors to experience iconic art works from nine centuries in a new and intense way. Works by Caspar David Friedrich, Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Niki de Saint Phalle, Isa Genzken, Andreas Gursky and Kehinde Wiley were complemented by everyday icons – from consumer brands to icons of popular culture such as Marilyn Monroe, Beyoncé and YouTube stars. An interpretation of the traditional notion of the icon in art was juxtaposed with the proliferation of icons in everyday life transforming the museum into a place of contemplation and reflection.

Eva Fischer-Hausdorf, curator of modern and contemporary art at Kunsthalle Bremen, said the exhibition examined 'how the concept of the icon unites aspects of worship, the sacred, and the idea of transcendence.' It focused 'on the exploration of the spiritual, mystical, and emotional power of art—and how the qualities of traditional icons continue to live on in the spiritual presence and auratic power of many modern and contemporary works of art.'

The Oude Kerk in Amsterdam is presenting Poems for Earthlings, an extensive and site-specific installation by Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas. It is his first solo show in the Netherlands. The site-specific installation is the result of historical research and numerous visits to the Oude Kerk.

Villar Rojas creates deeply engaging environments that invite visitors to experience the work as explorers. This installation is constituted of a soundtrack, sandbags and chandeliers in their wooden boxes creating a path inside the church itself, no longer allowing visitors to discover the entire 36,000 sq ft. The Argentinian artist composed eight hours of audiotape for the installation and also took complete daylight out of the church, leaving only eerie but peaceful chandeliers spread out through the church’s pathways. Viewers are in a dark bunker or protected area—sandbags give that impression—supposedly designed to shelter us and to preserve our dearest “things.”

In creating the installation the artist says he was 'amazed by how advanced is the secularization process in the Netherlands' meaning that 'the surviving “parishioners,” be them Catholics or Protestants, have to share a same sacred space—Oude Kerk—to keep their religion alive, as if they were those first Christians practising their rituals in a cave, hidden from the Romans, far from the cities. Now, these Amsterdam pilgrims are somehow forced to permanently negotiate with secular agents, as “art” itself, that knock their sacred door defying once and again their tolerance and ability to survive in a Godless environment.'

At the same time he also says that 'Everything that happens -and has ever happened- in a church is a great poem for earthlings.'

Building upon the strong foundations and experiences of the international series Art Stations of the Cross initiated by Aaron Rosen and Catriona Laing in 2016, in 2020 the project lands in Deventer, one of the oldest and best preserved (Hanseatic) cities of the Netherlands.

Every step you take in the picturesque city of Deventer and every work of art you observe remind you how vulnerable you are. Injustice, desolation and war are of all times. Suffering is inevitable. Yet there are always people who make an effort to work towards peace, justice and compassion.

For this edition, curator Anikó Ouweneel (co-curator of the 2019 Amsterdam edition) and Deventer initiator Arent Weevers (artist of station 8 in the 2019 edition), designed another complex multi-venue route with works that run the gamut of artistic media.

This art pilgrimage brings the visitor to cultural, historical, social and religious organizations that formed and form this cultural and intellectual center in the province of Overijssel. At every stop the traditional station of the cross are looked at in a new way, through the interaction of the work of art with the location where passion, enthusiasm and commitment for each other are visible in the local community today. The route relates to the immaterial religious heritage of walking the stations in the time of Lent. The artworks relate to universal themes characterizing the stations and refer to our times and/or the history of the city.

Until April 26, an exhibition with drawings and paintings by Pierre Van Humbeeck and Maria Piron runs in the Basilica of Koekelberg. That artist couple thought about the renewal of Christian art after the First World War. The exhibition draws from their archive, which is kept in KADOC.

Pierre Van Humbeeck (1891-1964) and Maria Piron (1888-1969) settled in Leuven in 1926 and firmly established themselves there. Their work - drawing as well as graphics, painting as photography and even ceramics - is fully in line with the artistic developments of the twentieth century and testifies to a new and open mind. The artists' studio also grew into a center of renewed Christian spirituality. Both maintained contacts with prominent religious, including the Leuven abbey Keizersberg, artists and writers. In 1939 they founded the movement Art et Louange. In that context, the couple regularly organized lectures and conferences on art and religion.

In the exhibition 'Maria and Pierre Van Humbeeck-Piron', organized by the Friends of Van Humbeeck-Piron and the Leuven Historical Society, the curators Emma Van Briel and Ramon Kenis show paintings, pastels and drawings of the couple, as well as contemporaries such as Alfred Delaunois, Frans Nackaerts, Jacob Smits and Anto Carte. Van Briel is worried that Piron and Van Humbeeck are about 'to be forgotten' because 'they are difficult to classify' in a specific genre and therefore could 'disappear between the folds of the isms that the art world' values.

"Your face, Lord, do I seek" is a special exhibition at Pope Benedict House showing works by the Leipzig painter, draftsman and graphic artist Michael Triegel. Pope Benedict House is the birthplace of Pope em. Benedict XVI and seeks to make the biography of Benedict XVI. accessible. Triegel became known as the painter of two portraits of Pope Benedict XVI. The two paintings are displayed in the Pope Benedict Institute in Regensburg and in the German Embassy at the Holy See in Rome.

Triegel has made a name for himself as a painter of sacred art. Working with Pope Benedict XVI and his Jesus books also led him to devote himself to the Christian faith. The exhibition of his works is under the title "Your face, Lord, do I seek". This psalm verse, which Pope Benedict also preceded his Jesus trilogy, has become life-relevant for Triegel. The special exhibition "Your face, Lord, do I seek" can be seen from April 19, 2020, the 15th anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict, until October 4, 2020.

Triegel explains, 'For a long time ... I sensed that it had to be good not have control over everything yourself, not to decide everything yourself. I wanted there to be something beyond myself. That is why I started to draw Biblical topics. That is also why I was very happy to be allowed to make a portrait of Pope Benedict. There was a great longing behind that ...

the Jesuit priest of the Catholic student community here in Leipzig asked me if I wanted to take part in Spiritual Exercises. I immediately said yes. The plans was to study and meditate on selected texts from the Bible for thirty days. That grabbed me. At the risk of sounding pathetic now: I found that the faith rushed from my head to my heart. That was also an epiphany, but not as I had expected ... I then decided that I was ready to be baptised.' 'I was baptised in the Easter vigil at the Dresdner Hofkirche.'

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The Innocence Mission - We Don't Know How To Say Why.