Inzichten en Vergezichten, Een Ommegang
(c)image: AMVK
The design of the light walls on the MAS boulevard is a contemporary art project. Each year, a national or international artist is invited to create a design. The task consists of creating light walls which are very much worth the effort to view both from afar (outside of the MAS) and close-up (in the MAS boulevard).
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, an Antwerp artist with an international reputation, was the first to be approached. She took her inspiration from a 16th century book by the Italian Joannes Pierus Valerianus that she came across in the archive of the print room of the Plantin-Moretus museum. The horizons were a second significant source of inspiration. When you climb the MAS tower and look out, the horizon drops, depending on the level you are on. In the construction of her images, Van Kerckhoven was also guided by the stories and collection pieces in the halls of the museum. By integrating emblemata from the 16th century book into contemporary imaginative digital landscapes and interweaving this with the horizons, Van Kerckhoven created new stories and world view for the MAS.
She populates the surfaces of the light walls with mythical creatures and symbols. The tensions between large and small, nature and culture and human and animal form a contemporary reflection on our society. Each light wall presents a unique story in which fantasy and reality meet.
The sequence of the eight floors is like a comic strip or animation film, but also resembles a procession of ideas and elements. The eight light walls offer views, provide direction and tell a story.
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven (°1951) combines computer work with drawings, text, sound, video and painting. The relationship between art, exact science, politics and social sciences is central to her work. By examining systems of knowledge and creating a context between them, she offers resistance to the omnipresent chaos of every day life. Over the years, Van Kerckhoven has built up a fascinating and complex multi-media oeuvre.
(source: MAS Guide 2011)
