Valérie Mannaerts’ versatile oeuvre stems from a curiosity about the forms and properties of things. How does the organic relate to the inorganic?
How does sculpture relate to the pictorial plane? Through hybrid forms, she questions materiality and identity, drawing on feminist thinking. Her works are layered, amorphous and flexible. They resist a single interpretation and predetermined norms and boundaries. Her sculptures show that nothing is completely fixed: they play with transformationand constantlybalance between representation and abstraction.
In ‘Antennae’, Mannaerts reflects on 30 years of artisticpractice while also presenting new work. The title refers to the antennae with which insects explore their environment, but also serves as a metaphor for Mannaerts’ artisticsensibility: the ability to establish subtle and complex connections between her world, her work, and the viewer.
Across five rooms, a sharp and contemporary picture of Mannaerts’ artisticpractice unfolds. In the first room, she explores the tension between painting and sculpture. In the next room, the focus shiftsto the human body: a body that can convey and generate meaning through the skin of clothing. The third room functionslike an outdoor space, where a monumental woven garden unfolds as the panorama of a personal and intimate place. In the last two rooms, the gaze turns inward again, focusing on the interaction between the inner self and what is visible on the outside. The exhibition culminates in a new installation in which Mannaerts explores the position that artistic practice can occupy.
