Exhibition Luc De man - Pétra Vanwichelen

Pétra Vanwichelen breaks through the two-dimensional framework with her versatile work. She succeeds in poetically converting soft materials such as red thread into feather-light assemblages, mixed media, drawings and paintings. Each work contains a germ of its sequel. Recurring components enter into dialogue with the rest of the oeuvre. By experimenting with different materials, the artist investigates individual and collective memory.
Due to the natural and organic capriciousness of the dynamic material, links are constantly created; a moving chain of being “always on the move”. This is where the works acquire their meaning and purpose. Sometimes the outcome has a dense structure, although the emphasis is never on the outside or the skin of the objects. Each work reveals its intimate character. Pétra Vanwichelen subtly tilts the attention from the material to the immaterial. The elusive, the metaphysical and the transient form her figurative red thread.

Luc de Man and his fellow artists contribute to the enrichment of our contemporary patrimony and show every day that the “Action Sculpture” project has reached its original challenge to integrate contemporary art in rural areas, even if the work of art is inspired by an imaginary metropolis and the established museums, galleries, schools and exhibition spaces are traditionally concentrated in large cities.