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Abstract
This is not a collection was the provocative title of an exhibition (2019) with religious objects in the repurposed Park Abbey in Leuven, Belgium. We were intrigued by a collection of relic holders with aged textile inside them. The gentle care for these fragile objects and their delicate and breakable holders are like metaphors for their changing meaning and interiorized expression. We noticed a similar relationship between vulnerability and careful preservation during the exhibition (2018) It almost seemed a Lily: featuring a unique dialogue between seven recently restored sixteenth century 'Enclosed Gardens' with work of contemporary artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (°1964). Both her work and the original Enclosed Gardens are based on concepts of fragility, texture, the body, and decay.
Figure 1 Expo It almost seemed a lily in Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen, Belgium (2018-2019). The Enclosed Gardens are part of the permanent collection of the museum. During the temporary exposition work of Berlinde De Bruyckere dialogues with the centuries-old retablesFootnote1. @ Museum Hof van Busleyden Mechelen (long-term borrower) and Foundation De beata vita OLV-Waver (owner).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen, Belgium. 2018–2019. Since the end of the exposition the Enclosed Gardens, the retables are part of the permanent collection of the museum.
2 Eliot, T.S. Citation1950. The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909–1950. 117-122. New York, NY: Harcourt & Brace.
3 Baert, B. Citation2016. Late Medieval 'Enclosed Gardens' of the Low Countries: Contributions to Gender Artistic Expression. Vol. 2, Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.
4 Watteeuw, L. 2016. The Conservation of Enclosed Gardens from Mechelen. A Closer Look at Fragile Mixed Media', in In Search of Utopia. Art & Science in the Era of Thomas More. 213–214.; Watteew, L., and Iterbeke, H. eds. (Citation2018) Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen – Late Medival Paradise Gardens Revealed. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: University Press & Veurne: Hannibal.
5 Translated from Latin by H. Itterbeken in her description of the 'Enclosed Garden with Calvary and Hunt for the Unicorn' in the exhibition catalog
6 Norris, Richard Alfred. 2003. The Song of Songs: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
7 Baert, B., Iterbeke, H., and Watteeuw, L. Citation2017. Late medieval enclosed gardens of the low countries: Mixed media, remnant art, récyclage and gender in the low countries (sixteenth century onwards). In The Agency of Things in Medieval and Early Modern Art: Materials, Power and Manipulation. p 33-47.
8 Baert, B., Iterbeke, H., and Watteeuw, L. (2017). Late medieval enclosed gardens of the Low Countries: Mixed media, remnant art, récyclage and gender in the low countries (sixteenth century onwards). In The Agency of Things in Medieval and Early Modern Art: Materials, Power and Manipulation. p 33-47.
9 Rudy, K. 2011. Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent. Imagining Jerusalem in the Late Middle Ages. Brepols Publishers. Turnhout. Belgium. In Baert, B. (2016) Late Medieval Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries – Contributions to Gender and Artistic Expressions, in Studies in Iconology 2. Leuven, Peeters Publishers.
10 Burnt Norton (the first poem of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets) refers to an actual manor in Gloucesershire (UK) that Eliot visited in 1934. It became a place of great affection and poetic inspiration.
11 Lines 11–15.
12 It would fall outside the scope of this essay, but the poem is also considered as a theological exploration on 'Incarnation', one of Eliot's returning themes after his conversion to Christianity in 1924
13 Eliot, 'Burnt Norton', lines 1–10.
14 Concept of Architekt, Hochschullehrer und Autor Wolfgang Meisenheimer (°1933) in Weinthal, L. (ed.) 2011. Toward a New Interior – an Anthology of Interior Design Theory.
15 The Family Reunion, first published in 1939.
16 Book published on the occasion of the expo with the same name. The book is a collection or collage of pictures and texst on itself. De Bruyckere, B., Watteeuw, L. et all Citation2018. It almost seemed a Lily. Veurne: Hannibal.
17 Quote of Berlinde De Bruyckere in Chapter V Petals in De Bruyckere, B., Watteeuw, L. et all 2018. It almost seemed a Lily. Veurne: Hannibal, p. 16.
18 De Bruyckere, B. et all. Berlinde De Bruyckere. Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen. Caemersklooster. Provinciaal Centrum voor Kunst en Cultuur & Chapter III Stamen in De Bruyckere, B., Watteeuw, L. et all 2018. It almost seemed a Lily. Veurne: Hannibal.
19 Heynen, H. 1999. Architecture and Modernity, a Critique. Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Heynen, H. 2002. Back from Utopia. 010. Rotterdam.
20 We refer to two examples in the Province Limburg (B) where our University is located: - Marienlof: Bones of Saint Odillia, who was one of the virgins to die as a martyr with Saint-Ursula (+ 383) and at the same time also chair of Saint Lutgardis (1182 – 1246), which is believed to help unfertile women when they touch the more than 800 years old wooden furniture piece.
21 Introduction to De Bruyckere, B., Watteeuw, L. et all 2018. It almost seemed a Lily. Veurne: Hannibal
22 Baert, B. (2016) Late Medieval Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries – Contributions to Gender and Artistic Expressions, in Studies in Iconology 2. Leuven, Peeters Publishers. 29. & Baert, B. Baert, with the collaboration of Iterbeke, and H (Citation2016) Revisiting the Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries (Fifteenth Century Onwards). Gender, Textile, and the Intimate Space as Horticulture. In Cloth and Culture, Volume 15, p. 2–33.
23 Mengoni, M. (ed.) Citation2014. Berlinde De Bruyckere. Mercatorfonds. Brussel. 111
24 Baert, B. (Citation2016) Late Medieval Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries – Contributions to Gender and Artistic Expressions, in Studies in Iconology 2. Leuven, Peeters Publishers. 29.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Karen Lens
Karen Lens studied architecture at Saint-Lucas Brussels and MaMa Architectural Sciences at KULeuven. Ten years later, she started a PhD study at the UHasselt, which is an interdisciplinary work based on research (by design) (interior) architecture, adaptive reuse, fashion, and tailoring. She employs the same multidisciplinary approach when she teaches design and theoretical studios/courses to (interior) architecture students in both bachelor and master at the Faculty of Architecture & Arts at the same university. In her work as an architect, she focuses on adaptive reuse processes and interior architecture.
Email: [email protected]
Koenraad Van Cleempoel
Koenraad Van Cleempoel studied art history in Louvain, Madrid, and Oxford. He received a PhD from the Warburg Institute in London. He lectures art history at the Faculty of Architecture & Arts at the University of Hasselt. He is a member of the research group Trace, with interest in the theory of adaptive reuse. He helped in creating a research master in interior architecture on the subject of adaptive reuse.