DEAR READER, It is with great pride that I present the first edition of Imagicasa ART, a real art magazine that discusses art in all its forms. Why art? Just like architecture and design, it is part of our lives. Art is emotion and it brings about something when you come into contact with it. That is why Imagicasa wants to take its readers on an artistic journey this winter that will undoubtedly leave no one unmoved. Be warned though, we do not stick to the traditional definition of art and also present some out-of-the-box subjects. As always, we bring surprising, inspiring and accessible stories for young and old, man and woman, expert and novice. We not only highlight the most important works or current exhibitions. Imagicasa ART dares to go further and approaches both old and modern art from different perspectives. Gallery holders and restorers will have their say, new talent will be highlighted and collectors will be able to find inspiration. If you thought you already knew everything about the old masters, be prepared to get your socks blown off. Aside from names such as Eugène Delacroix, Joan Miró and Pieter Bruegel, contemporary artists such as Le Fawnhawk, John Franzen and Daniel Arsham also have a place in this special edition. We talked with some art experts – for example Karine Huts and Christophe Van de Weghe – who have made a name for themselves internationally. Thanks to their contagious passion for art, our entire editorial team is now truly infected with the art virus. With this magazine we hope to show you everything this fascinating world has to offer. Finally, I would like to thank you, our readers, for your trust in our magazine. It gave me and my team the courage to take this leap and expand the Imagicasa brand. Looking for even more inspiration? Know that you can always subscribe to our weekly newsletter on our website. Let me inspire you!
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DECEMBER 2018 40
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4. Magical Artworks 10. Mystery & Symbolism 14. Soft 18. Daniel Arsham 26. Pablo Atchugarry 32. Stylomania 40. Joan Miró 2 | IMAGICASA
48. Salvador Dalí 56. A World of Emotions 62. Lifelike Sculptures 68. Van de Weghe Fine Art 74. Neon Art 80. Cooking, Art and Cotton 88. Bruegel
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134 124
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98. Eugène Delacroix 102. Restoration 104. Street Art 110. Jarno Kettunen 116. Mineheart 124. Keith Haring 130. Between Art & Design
134. Hofa 140. A Life full of Art 148. Creation is Destruction 154. Hidden Masters 160. Serpentine Galleries 164. Grand Basel 170. Art on Wheels IMAGICASA | 3
MAGICAL
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© LE FAWNHAWK
ARTWORKS
Her name sounds just as magical as the artworks she creates. Petecia Le Fawnhawk creates art in all kinds of forms with a wild creativity. Each work exudes a blossoming purity and roughness and bears witness to the artist’s eternal curiosity and talent.
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etecia Le Fawnhawk is a multimedia artist and has worked with other creative people such as Eliot Lee Hazel, Tuneyards, J.S. Nero and Tasya van Ree. To her, art is “a visual philosophy, a symbolic language of the subconscious that is unique to each person. Art shapes the shapeless and illustrates what nothing else can.” She creates different kinds of art including sculptures, video installations, drawings and land art – an art form in which artists make artistic interventions directly into a landscape. Her projects are bursting with talent and experienced details that would almost make you forget that she is completely self-taught. She told us that her greatest inspiration comes from nature, philosophical texts and ancient wisdom, metaphysics, fashion, architecture, art and design. She uses the colours of the desert, of sunrises and sunsets and black or white. She prefers to work with natural and sculptural materials. The works that really stood out for Imagicasa were those from the ‘Modern Desert Magic’ series. And as the name suggests, these works of art radiate pure magic. Petecia told Imagicasa more about this in an exclusive interview. Her works are a perfect reflection of her personality; her words are equally artistic and magical.
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LE FAWNHAWK SOUNDS SO MAGICAL, IS IT YOUR ACTUAL LAST NAME? “Thank you, it’s my artist moniker. As a sage once put it, it’s the name of my inner child: ‘If you kill this name, you will kill your inner child.’ And well, I couldn’t do that! I’ve had the name since I was 18. It was my band name and then it just became what I was known as. It was also the name of a mythical creature I created to represent the masculine and feminine, the
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fragile and the fierce, the great dichotomy that lives within me, perhaps in us all.” HOW DID YOU BECOME AN ARTIST AND DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE ONE? “I don’t remember ‘becoming’ an artist. I’ve just been doing what I’ve always done. Follow my curiosity, explore, engage with nature, act on creative impulse, trust and respond to my intuitive voice. And it’s kind of funny actually,
because I’ve only recently become comfortable with calling myself an ‘artist’. I told myself that a title was in relation to what you did professionally, and professionally I was a designer and creative director. Since focusing on my personal art these past few years, I’ve gotten more comfortable with the term and I also had the realization that I always was an artist, and always will be, no matter if I change my professional trade or area of expertise tomorrow.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORKS? “Surreal visual poetry and philosophy. I call it ‘Modern Desert Magic’. It’s an echo of everything that pleases my soul and eye. A visual expression of my inner and outer journey through the world, encrypted in the ever-evolving language of my soul. I am a multi-disciplinary artist. I do not like to be defined or confined by a medium. I become completely immersed in the process and I approach every creative impulse or idea with the most suitable medium to execute it as closely to the way I envisioned it in my mind’s eye. Whether that be through paintings, drawings, photography, collage or sculptures. My dream is to start to manifest my language and renderings into site specific land art sculptures.” WHO IS YOUR ART EXAMPLE OR HERO? “I don’t have just one. I am attracted to the Modern, Surrealism, land art, light and space and zen art movements. Some artists I love are Brancusi, Kay Sage, Matisse, Georgia O’keeffe, Richard Long, Magritte, James Turrell, Mobius, Andy Goldsworthy, Shohji Ueda,… so many actually! I’m always discovering new artists or aspects of artists whom I seem to share a kindred spirit with and whom I can relate to.” IMAGICASA ABSOLUTELY LOVES THE ‘MODERN DESERT MAGIC’ SERIES. CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT MORE ABOUT THIS? “I was initially inspired with Brancusi’s desire to strip form down to the essential. Removing the unnecessary
and allow the essence to sing. It’s about a sculptural language of truth, the building blocks of the natural and the laws that govern the universe, brought in a way that comes natural to me. For colours and materials, I used the natural palette of the desert and powder coated black. The elements are inspired by forms and their relationship with their environment and the effect of when the two exist as one. I’m also starting a crowd sourced project to erect my, or ‘our’, first Modern Desert Magic site specific land art project, to be erected on an acre that I intend to buy and make public to share with the world.” THE DESERT SEEMS TO PLAY A BIG ROLE IN THESE WORKS, WHY IS THAT? “I was raised in the desert. It has always been the backdrop and playground to my imagination. It is home. And yes, whenever I’m away from the desert, my imagination works to engineer creative ways to draw me back to it. And when the call becomes too much to ignore, I answer. Luckily, I live in LA, and my family still lives in Arizona, so it’s not too much to get up and go home, to the desert.” WHICH PROJECT OR WORK ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? “I don’t mean this to sound pretentious, but I don’t think I give enough thought to the results of my manifestations to feel pride. I am constantly moving forward, constantly trying to reach the next level of personal achievement. And that to me, means executing a vision as closely to its original incantation as possible and as seamlessly as possible.” (Text: Caroline Meeusen) IMAGICASA | 7
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PETECIA LE FAWNHAWK (1983) ORIGIN: Irish, German, Cherokee WHO: multimedia artist and dreamer WHAT: surrealist visual poetry and philosophy ART FORM: sculptures, video installations, drawings, land art INSPIRATION: desert, nature, philosophy, architecture,... COLLABORATIONS: Eliot Lee Hazel, Tuneyards, J.S. Nero and Tasya van Ree IMAGICASA’S CHOICE: Modern Desert Magic Series
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MYSTERY AND SYMBOLISM 10 | IMAGICASA
There is probably only one piece of this special Egyptian statue in the whole world. Thoth as a Baboon is a beautiful, unique art treasure with great historical value. The millennia-old sculpture is shrouded in mystery and symbolism which makes this object all the more interesting.
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his is not just a statue of a monkey. In this sculpture Thoth – the Egyptian god of the moon, magic, calendar, writing and wisdom – is depicted as a baboon. This special work dates from the Thirtieth Dynasty (380 B.C.-343 B.C.) and is thus more than two thousand years old! The statue weighs about 152 kilograms and measures 75 centimetres. Originally, there was also a gold medallion on the head of the baboon that created a ray of light. According to mythological reports, the temple of Edfu, on the western bank of the Nile, is the original site of the statue. This is certainly possible, because although the temple was dedicated to the god Horus, other gods were also worshipped, so this statue would not look out of place there. There are many statues of Thoth as a baboon, but none is as beautiful and valuable as this one from the private collection of Bart Verlsuys. The two sculptures that come closest to this unique specimen in terms of value and shape are located in Paris and New York. The Louvre in Paris has a smaller version of 15 centimetres made of faience (tin-glazed pottery), finished with gold and silver. This
example still has the sun disk on the head of the baboon and dates from the period 332 B.C.-30 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses the other sculpture dating from the period of the Twenty-sixth to Twenty-ninth Dynasty (664 B.C.-380 B.C.). This version is even smaller (8.8 centimetres) and is also made of faience. What makes Versluys’ piece so exclusive and unique is the almost perfect condition and size of the sculpture and the material: basalt, a volcanic black stone. Imagicasa agrees with the proud owner that this is undoubtedly the most beautiful and unique piece. HISTORICAL TREASURE This beautiful sculpture dates from the hey-
day of Egypt when Nectanebo I, founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty, ruled (379 B.C.-363 B.C.). In that dynasty – which is also referred to as the Fifth Dynasty of the Late Period of Ancient Egypt – the country grew and flourished in all respects. Huge numbers of temples were built and restored, which also increased sculpture creation, as sculptures were present in temples in large numbers. New buildings were erected and art also flourished. Art production reached a very high level of mastery and refinement. This sculpture of Thoth is a perfect example of the phenomenal art that was created in that period. Thoth or Djehoety was, as said, the god of magic and wisdom. He is said to IMAGICASA | 11
“Baboons were also associated with wisdom and eroticism”
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have invented writing and passed on that knowledge to mankind. According to mythology, he was the son of Horus. He was often depicted with the head of an ibis (a Nile bird) or, as in this case, as a baboon. Thoth as a baboon, also called Isdes, was also seen as an assistant in the judgment room of the underworld. There he weighed the heart, noted the judgment of Maät – his wife and goddess of order, justice and truth – and brought the deceased to the god Osiris. In Ancient Egypt animals in general and especially baboons and other monkeys often played a significant and sometimes mysterious role in religion and legends. People believed that animals served as messengers between mankind and the gods. Of all animals, baboons, along with birds, were the most commonly used to depict gods. As representatives of these gods and with their role as pets and little helpers, these animals were popular and loved by the people. The animals were not only trained to pick fruit and help with some chores. They also patrolled the streets with their owners – just like police dogs today. Baboons were also associated with wisdom and eroticism. All these factors made them one of the most important and popular animals in the society and religion of Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian art still has a great appeal today. Probably because of its age, craftsmanship and veil of mystery. This baboon statue also has a rich history and meaning. Art collector and entrepreneur Bart Versluys is very proud that this art object is part of his private collection. “I have always been fascinated by Egyptian art, because it is a relic of my childhood, with a certain nostalgia for the Indiana Jones TV series. I have a fascination for rare and unique pieces of which few replicas exist [...] Millions of people have worshipped this statue in the past. The fact that it now decorates my living room is extraordinary. Really incredible,” says Versluys. (Text: Caroline Meeusen) IMAGICASA | 13
Kati Heck, Schutzengel of Painting, 2015. Photo: © Tim Van Laere Gallery
SOFT
Until 24 February 2019, the MoMu (Antwerp’s fashion museum) presents the exhibition ‘SOFT? Tactile Dialogues’ in the Maurice Verbaet Center. This time, the emphasis is exceptionally not on fashion. For the first time, MoMu presents the work of Belgian textile artists from the 70s and 80s in dialogue with works from Maurice Verbaet’s impressive private collection of post-war art.
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OFT? Tactile Dialogues’ is about the freedom with which artists move between various media, about unexpected textile applications, about tactility and aversion, about textures and the skin of sculptures,” says curator Elisa De Wygnaert. In the exhibition visitors can find a unique combination of works from the MoMu collection on the one hand, and 14 | IMAGICASA
from the ‘caroline&mauriceverbaetcollection’ on the other. “Although textile artists often moved at the margins of the art world, their continual efforts were crucial for textiles to become accepted as a medium in contemporary art,” says De Wygnaert. Female artists who expressed themselves in textiles in the 1970s and 1980s are therefore placed alongside contemporary names such as Kati Heck,
Net Aerts, Klaas Rommelaere and Gommaar Gilliams. Imagicasa selected a few must-see works! KLAAS ROMMELAERE Klaas Rommelaere graduated from KASK Ghent in 2013 in the fashion department. Since then, however, he has focused more on visual art inspired by his personal life, family
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Klaas Rommelaere, It’s People Who Need People, 2016. Photo: © Gallery Zink
Kati Heck, Dreimal Selbst mit Magier, 2016. Photo: © Tim Van Laere Gallery
history, films, series and ethnic art. Rommelaere makes flags, carpets, masks and installations in which he expresses himself in textiles and handicrafts. In response to this exhibition, the young artist admitted that he was more interested in craft techniques than in sewing machines, because he could not control them. With the freedom he now feels, he created this colourful carpet, among other things. Especially for the exhibition ‘SOFT? Tactile Dialogues’, he also created the work Future, consisting of about sixty carpets inspired by the photographs which he got from his girlfriend when they just got to know each other. TAPTA Tapta is the pseudonym of Maria WierusKowalski (1926-1997). This Belgian16 | IMAGICASA
Polish textile artist and sculptress moved to Brussels in the 1960s to train in fashion design at the École nationale superiéure des arts visuels. The college is also known as ‘ter Kameren’ or ‘La Cambre’ and was founded by Henry Van de Velde. Here, Maria learned to weave. She then managed to apply her weaving skills consistently to fibres and textiles. Although she also makes simple scarves, she will remain best known for her monumental and three-dimensional sculptures. The work shown here, Horizons Flexibles, is one of the many works from the private collection of Caroline and Maurice Verbaet. We see a few tubes of various sizes, wound in wool, placed next to each other. The whole can be manipulated and the tubes can be moved, with which the artist pictures the flexibility – or freedom? – of textile.
“SCULPTURES HAVE FEELINGS TOO AND WHO DOESN’T WANT TO BE CUDDLED?”
KATI HECK Heck makes sculptural installations, short films and monumental paintings. Her paintings blend the visual language of the Old Masters with German artists such as Otto Dix and Georg Grosz. The paintings show her personal world of experience with a colourful collection of life-size characters from her immediate surroundings, alternated with absurd words or slogans.
exhibition. The fact that the doll has been beheaded does not appear to be a problem for Heck. “I don’t think these works are very horrible. Horror is something else. That a tongue can form a red carpet to the head or that a body part does not want to be part of the torso, are things you also encounter in normal life. Sculptures also have feelings and who doesn’t want to be cuddled?”
Tapta, Horizon Flexibles, 1976. Verbaet Collection, Photo: Vesna Faassen © Maurice Verbaet Center
“For me, the process of painting starts with stretching my canvas. Because they don’t provide the hemp canvases I use wide enough, every canvas has to be sewn to get the right size. Sometimes, I already have an idea in my head about how the canvas should come together or hang just outside the frame. It is often rather by chance and exactly because of the ‘accidents’ during sewing or stretching that new ideas arise. I also find it exciting when a sculptural element is involved: for example cup holders that are attached to the canvas or branches that come to the foreground to carry a lampshade.”
MAURICE VERBAET CENTER This unique private museum opened in 2015 in the former buildings of the Antwerp Waterwerken, the result of years of passionate collecting by Caroline and Maurice Verbaet. Based on their love for Belgian modern post-war art and the conviction that art connects people, the entrepreneurial couple decided to open their own museum. The 1960s architecture with monumental stairwell of the Maurice Verbaet Center forms the impressive backdrop of this exhibition.
The beheaded fabric sculpture Schutzengel of Painting not only adorns the central axis of the exhibition, but also became the poster of the
For more information, visit: www.momu.be (Text: Arne Rombouts)
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Large Knot
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DANIEL ARSHAM IMAGICASA | 19
Art, architecture or performance? Daniel Arsham’s work cannot be limited to just one category. His groundbreaking sculptures and installations start from everyday forms, events and images, but are not what they seem. Besides the visual confusion, the tactile aspect also plays an important role in the dystopian world of this artist. Arsham has a great fascination for unusual materials, which he combines in such a way that we are forced to look at reality in a different way.
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aniel Arsham is certainly not a new name in the art world. He has worked with the well-known New York art gallery Perrotin on numerous exhibitions since joining the gallery in 2005 and has had countless exhibitions and shows all over the world to his credit. Although he regularly returns to the same themes with his characteristic style, every new creation is a spectacular surprise to the onlooker. This past autumn he had his fifteenth exhibition, named ‘3018’, at the Perrotin Gallery which included several works never before shown, and we are looking forward to what Arsham has in store for us for the exhibition in Amsterdam that will start in January 2019. 20 | IMAGICASA Holding Hands Crystal
Draped Figure
What is already certain is that he will undoubtedly once again shatter the world we think we know. With his fascination for archaeology and the concept of timelessness, the artist is known for reinterpreting iconic symbols from the 20th and 21st century as findings of a long extinct civilization. Just think of the eroded car tires and video cassettes or the cameras, headphones and television sets from which crystals grow.
ARCHAEOLOGIST OR FUTURIST Arsham’s works explore the boundaries between architecture, art and performance. He allows his imagination to run wild and shows us the possibilities of architecture that we would not have thought possible at first sight. However, because his creations are based on everyday things and objects, they subsequently create a feeling of surprise and even confusion among the spectators. Arsh-
am describes his sculptural experiments as “an interrogation of the real and the imaginary” and “future relics of the present”. They bear witness to a certain futurism and even a post-apocalyptic worldview. The artist seems to be looking at how today’s objects will look in the future, in 10, 100 or even 1000 years – hence the name of his recent exhibition ‘3018’. He presents modern technology and elements from popular culture as historical artefacts, IMAGICASA | 21
Falling Figure
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visibly showing the effects of time. We would like to quote Jeff Rian, musician, writer and professor at the famous art academy ENSAPC (École Supérieure d’arts Paris-Cergy), who wonderfully described the artist’s work like this: “Objects have lost their physical dominance, but not their aesthetic power.” Here, we clearly see the archaeologist in Arsham. He presents utensils that have lost their functionality – what do you do with an hourglass that can no longer indicate time – but not their beauty. You could even say that the stage of decay has made them even more beautiful. They certainly also have a historical and cultural value and can therefore claim their place in museums and art collections. Is this really the future of our contemporary reality?
Hollow Figure
Volcanic ash and minerals like pyrite and quartz grow in the places where we would expect the mechanical elements of the car. Thus Daniel Arsham’s work often tends towards Surrealism. He starts from everyday objects, but places them in a different, higher reality that originates from his imagination.
ples that are attached to it in a unique, often playful way. Just think of the exhibition ‘Moving Architecture’ where sculptures are extensions of the walls and ceiling. The spaces come to life, but at the same time, time stands still because the medium in itself is something static. In this way Arsham appeals to the relationship between man and architecture. Not only do we have the possibility to make it or break it down, but architecture also has an influence on how we move and live. The result is more related to installation art or performance and can rather be categorized as site-specific art because it was developed at and for this specific location itself, namely the Karelia pavilion that was built for the art biennale in Moscow.
MULTITALENT Daniel Arsham (°1980) grew up in Miami and graduated as an architect from Cooper Union, the renowned school in New York that can also count Shigeru Ban, Daniel Liebeskind, William Harnett and Eva Hesse among its alumni. Architecture is a fixed value in his work, although he interprets the classical princi-
The fact that he regularly works with other art forms in his career should therefore not come as a surprise. Although he was not trained for this, it was a logical step that Arsham would at some point venture into stage scenography. He has already worked with the dance company of the legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham and
SURREALIST As said before, these ‘finds’ are usually not quite what they seem. The Delorean from 1981 that played a leading role in ‘3018’ may be a reference to the popular film Back to the Future (1985), but oddly enough it doesn’t really entice a feeling of nostalgia.
The Future Pharrell, 2014, Photo by Claire Dorn © The artist and Perrotin
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Teddy Bear Crystal
Film and the fashion world are no strangers to the artist either. At the presentation of his third collection of sneakers for Adidas, for example, a 15-minute short film was launched in which the story behind the design is revealed. (Text: Eline De Mont) 24 | IMAGICASA
Eroded Ferrari, 2018, Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli Š The artist and Perrotin
DANIEL ARSHAM (1980) ORIGIN: Cleveland, Ohio, VS WHAT: sculptures, performance art, site-specific art co-founder Snarkitecture KNOWN FOR: collaboration with Adidas and Pharrell Williams
Images Š VDNH Moscow
theatre director Robert Wilson, who is known for his experimental performances. Even Pharrell Williams was eager to work with Arsham. The result of this is a life-size statue of Williams in pieces of broken glass for which the singer and producer himself was covered in plaster to make the mold.
26 JAN-- 03 FEB 2019
BRUSSELS
GUEST OF HONOUR : GILBERT & GEORGE
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