KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Künstler*innen

Freek Wambacq

Belgium

Freek Wambacq’s work, which often draws its inspiration from chance encounters and wayward discoveries, investigates the nexus of sculpture, installation and architecture. While it can be seen in a critical relation to Minimalism and Arte Povera, it playfully undermines their cerebral rigour with a wry sense of humour.

Unlike Arte Povera, for instance, Wambacq’s practice does not confine itself to natural or poetic elements, but also includes everyday, at times ridiculous-looking objects. In actual fact, the artist’s often deceptively simple objects allow for numerous and far-ranging interpretations, for beneath their surface lies an entanglement of different histories, sociological commentaries and recurring architectural or art-historical references, which add multiple dimensions to the work’s intrinsic aesthetic qualities.

Wambecq’s simultaneously material and conceptually inflected practice thus establishes a critical link between the world of art and the world at large.

STAY
01.03.2010 – 28.02.2011