The exhibition Jef Verheyen.Window on Infinity is more than just work by the modern master. Five contemporary artists entered into dialogue with his work in the expo. Like Verheyen, they try to push the boundaries of art. Ann Veronica Janssens, Kimsooja, Pieter Vermeersch and Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen stimulate visitors' wonderment with spatial installations. After all, the search for essence is as relevant today as it was when Verheyen turned his window on the infinite.
“Where Westerners speak of "rainbow colours," in Korea they speak of "obangsaek": of a colour spectrum from five cardinal directions, which is used in Korean art traditions. In this cross-shaped spectrum, yellow forms the center, black the North, red the South, white the West and blue the East. The five colours of obangsaek play a crucial role in Korean culture, Confucianism, Taoism, and part of Buddhism, which together form East Asian philosophy and make statements about ourselves, our fortune, and the universe.” - Kimsooja
"My fascination with time and space lies in the realm of analogue photography. My graduated murals, for example, can be seen as a time lapse. Painting out every millisecond in the appearance of colour. I like to compare it to visually fixing all the time present in a developing Polaroid photograph but horizontally and without a recognisable image. That image has been replaced by an abstraction. By colour. With Jef Verheyen, colour stands on its own while I represent it through photography. When it comes to colour and image, that's our fundamental difference." - Pieter Vermeersch
“Mechelen Marauder fractures space. Its ephemeral, translucent, cylindrical form reinforces the rotational movement in space. What we are looking for is to provoke thought by destabilizing space. The mirror, as a common object, functions as a medium that attracts and repulses at the same time. The repulsion varies from viewer to viewer as it fractures one’s image along with all that crosses its path. It will stretch like a whirlwind between the circular floor mosaic and the glass ceiling - something that barely seems to stop.” - Carla Arocha en Stéphane Schraenen
"These installations allow me to experiment with themes of perception, movement, intangibility and abstraction. It's about experimenting with the possibilities of making perception of matter and architecture more fluid. I use light to infiltrate matter to create a viewing experience. The aquariums are made of crystalline glass and filled with transparent crystalline liquids. Depending on the different liquids, the refraction of light varies. This creates a minimal prism that reflects the space around the sculpture. The organisation of these liquids generates phenomena of refraction, light reflection and surface tension. Pink Coco Lopez creates the virtual image of a bright pink surface at the top of the liquid." - Ann Veronica Janssens