PILES OF FRESHLY SKINNED LEATHERS, NOTHING MORE DELICATE AND BRUTAL – DISCOVER BERLINDE DE BRUYCKERE’S UNCANNY OPERAS
Translation by Fiammetta Cesana
The immersive environmental installation was conceived by the Belgian artist as a reproduction of a place that deeply impressed her imagination, a leather processing laboratory in Anderlecht (Brussels-capital Region). The stacks of freshly skinned leathers rest on large wooden bases, covered with salt that protects and preserves them, surrounded by an environment inhabited by material clues to the process. The artist asks us to measure ourselves against an extreme image, with a mass of death without a name, which evokes huge past and current tragedies. The work, however, does not stop in front of this feeling of horror, but seeks a form of comfort, of redemption, an intention that emerges through the complex material workmanship, the delicacy in the rendering of these pathetic remains, the care in recomposing through the sculptural act the decay into the formless. The process of the cast that gave rise to all these works speaks of contact, intimacy and sharing, and of a memory that shows up again. Finally, it is the very act of making it present, of drawing something from the darkness of conscience and knowledge, so that it won’t be forgotten, that constitutes the most important gesture of restoration.
Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work, created for the solo exhibition of the artist ‘Aletheia, on-vergeten’ (revelation, unforgettable), is part of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection.
‘Aletheia, on-vergeten’
Fondation Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Turin
Until October 20
