Affiniteiten#6: Maria Degrève ≈ Patrick Van Caeckenbergh // Sietske Van Aerde ~ Floris Van Look

LLS Paleis

25.02.2024 — 14.04.2024

Affiniteiten#6 is de zesde editie van het jaarlijks terugkerende tentoonstellingsproject over kunstenaarskoppels die samen leven maar niet samen werken.
 

“You must work, always work” and “don’t waste time with wives and children.” This is the advice Auguste Rodin gave Rainer Maria Rilke when the young poet asked him how he should live to become an artist. Rilke, who was assisting Rodin as secretary at the time and was writing a monograph on him, seemed to take this answer quite literally. He left his German wife and daughter and moved permanently to France, where he dedicated himself to writing. As Rilke claimed some years later in his letters to the poet Franz Xaver Kappus, an artist must devote his entire life to creating his work and must therefore feel: ‘[…] solitude, a great inner solitude.’
 

In his writings, Rilke more than once defines artistry as a strictly individual practice. Indeed, “the artist” has often been described in (popular) literature since the sixteenth century as an eccentric figure, unable to lead a classical family life and for whom solitude (like fear and poverty) is not only a consequence but also an essential part of life. To this day, that idea seems to prevail that an artist is an isolated individual for whom a committed relationship compromises creative freedom.
 

In response to this discourse, the annual exhibition project Affiniteiten at LLS Paleis presents the artist as someone who combines his or her artistic activity with a steadfast love affair. Like the previous exhibitions in this series, Affiniteiten#6 includes the work of four artists, two couples, who live together but do not work together. By presenting fragments of these artists’ individual oeuvres together, the exhibition questions both the image of the artist as an isolated genius and the strict separation between artistic practice and private life.
 

This exhibition includes the work of Floris Van Look (°1990, Wilrijk) and Sietske Van Aerde (°1992, Bornem) on the one hand, and that of Maria Degrève (Halle) and Patrick Van Caeckenbergh (°1960, Aalst) on the other. The first couple’s meeting dates back to their high school days at the H. Pius X Institute in Antwerp. After that, they also pursued their higher studies at the same institution, The Royal Academy of Antwerp, where they both graduated in 2018, Van Look in painting and Van Aerde in costume design. Degrève and Van Caeckenbergh met later in their careers, during their participation in the Private Tag exhibition at the War Museum Raversyde in 2016. Shortly after Van Caeckenbergh handed over the entire contents of his study, Het sigarendoosje (1997- 2017), which had been in his home in Sint-Kornelis-Horebeke for 20 years, to the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, he moved in with Maria Degrève.

Similar to the previous editions, existing works from the artists’ oeuvres were selected for Affiniteiten#6 in which the life partners seem to meet on a substantive and/or formal level. As in the interviews with the artists themselves, this selection process left room for emotional choices and anecdotes; the partners chose each other’s favorite works, works that play a central role in their shared story, and works for which they encouraged or helped each other during the making process. In addition, pieces were chosen from the artists’ personal collections, some of which have never before been shown outside the walls of their homes and some of which the creators are not sure to be worthy of display.
 

It is striking that the related artists seem to focus on similar issues in certain works. In addition, the way they use their medium to question their surroundings also shows similarities. Both Sietske Van Aerde and Floris Van Look present pasty paintings, in which they accentuate the materiality of paint and give it a sculptural character. Their works, like thejoint sketches they made during a vacation in Italy, mostly testify to a shared interest in everyday life. The artists often enrich these scenes with imaginary elements or motifs from literature, such as the beheading of John the Baptist in Van Aerde’s What’s on the menu (2022). Through their materials and colors, their works, such as Lazy Daisy I / Gatenkaas (2023) and Dirty painter (2018), bear witness to a naiveté and humor with which the artists put into perspective not only their own discipline but also them selves – and each other. This is perhaps most striking in Van Aerdes Only smokers left alive (2020), a self-portrait of the artists in bed, of which Van Look painted his own version that same year (Thuisblijvers).
 

Most of the works by Maria Degrève and Patrick Van Caeckenbergh in the exhibition date from the period preceding their relationship. Nevertheless, similar motifs can be detected in their work as well, such as an interest in the “self” and the (own) body. Maria Degrève can be seen in the photographic series Est-ce que je ressemble à la personne à qui je ne ressemble pas? (1985-2018) and L’amour fou (2002-2018), in which she explores the various facets of her identity and the ways in which it can be molded. This is also the case for her performances, which she often executes during trips with Van Caeckenbergh and which he photographs according to her instructions. Van Caeckenbergh himself also appears several times in the exhibition, but in miniature form. In The Mouse Hole (1985 – 2017), for example, he presents himself as a humble pet. Whereas Degrève’s artistic practice takes place both inside and outside, Van Caeckenbergh works exclusively indoors because his work consists primarily of collecting and processing scientific and philosophical information.

By presenting them side by side, Affiniteiten#6 offers an insight into the relationship of the artist couples’ works. In addition, the exhibition highlights the importance of the context in which the four artists operate. A context of which their love relationship is an important part; for just as Rilke sought support from Rodin, the life partners assist, advise and inspire each other.
 

Liska Brams