An Original Cabinet of Curiosities in Mons
Commissioned by BeCraft and the Beaux-Arts Mons (BAM), Sofie Lachaert and Luc D’hanis have worked on an original Cabinet de Curiosités, open until end of January.
I met Sofie and Luc few years back in Dubai where they exhibited at Design Days Dubai. I immediately loved their specific and distinctive taste for design. Far away from the instagramable trend and easy (I could even say) cheap design.
Both Sofie and Luc are graduates of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Usually setting their own works, they also design contextual environments for theatrical or museum productions around the world. For this new collaboration, surprising scenography – made up of pieces inspired by tents that provide shelter to refugees in areas of humanitarian crises – infiltrate the BAM exhibition rooms, giving them a floating sensation.
Memento Mons invites the public to meditate on the brevity of life and human fragility in the face of the great ensemble formed by time, matter and space. Man is only on earth for a limited time: all artifacts are silent witnesses to this temporary period. What is the value of canons of modern beauty compared with the ancient aesthetic models and works already written into the pages of history? How do they help us understand the world?
![Untitled [L’Avenir - The Future]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60e5d1328ba0347d103ca037/1631518675919-4CLJB7UHT4S1LEPJ4E90/NG_64102_500.jpg)
The exhibition is the result of selecting objects from a rich heritage and from various artistic forms that interlink and form a narrative. The public is invited to discover both historical objects and contemporary works, including the work of Belgian artists brought by BeCraft, highlighting applied arts designers such as Caroline Andrin, the artist duo Anne Marie Laureys Ceramics, Thérèse Lebrun, Antonino Spoto and Arnaud Sprimont. Also, Galila’s collection brings together the artists of today and tomorrow from across multiple themes. The misappropriation of objects, the humour, the unusual and even the incongruous deeply permeate the whole and ensure its coherence.
A large number of historical objects have also been selected from the museum collections in Mons. We may observe and interpret artefacts whose meaning escapes us because we no longer know the context or because their meaning remains mysterious. From this connection – or clash – comes sparks of unexpected beauty and surprising tensions that offer the visitor another perspective. Whatever the era in question, the feelings and emotions evoked by these objects remain.
“When designing the spaces intended to receive house exhibits according to various themes, we did not favour classical rectangular or square designs, nor the obvious, conventional, practical or decorative forms.
The starting point of our reflection was based on the arrangement of tents that provide shelter to refugees in areas of humanitarian crises. These makeshift shelters were imagined on the scale of the human body; in their own way, they welcome as many people as possible on a limited area of land, bringing them together, somehow storing them.
In reality, like cabinets filled with curiosities, they gather collections of individuals, each with their own story.“
- Sofie Lachaert and Luc D’hanis
The exhibition is open until January 26th, 2020.
Hero picture: Mehdi-Georges Lahlou, The Hourglasses, 2015. Blown glass, couscous grains. Galila’s collection © J. Luyten
