For a period of six months, every week, a new offering is made, feeding The Boogeyman – a mysterious creature regularly appearing on the plinth.
To some, who remember the times of Belgian Congo, The Boogeyman is a Mundele mwinda, a white man kidnapping black children and grinding them up into corned beef. To others, born in Flanders, The Boogeyman is a Zwarte Piet, Saint Nicholas’ black servant taking bad children. For those who speak French, The Boogeyman is a Croque-mitaine – a hand-cruncher.
Embodying symmetrical fantasies about who the “other” is, The Boogeyman intertwines mythology: Brabo, cutting off the giant Antigoon’s hand and throwing it away (“hand werpen”), liberating and baptizing Antwerp; and history: the sentinelles cutting off the hands of the recalcitrant workers during the collection of rubber in the Congo Free State.
With:
- Jack Davey (fashion design)
- Karel Tuytschaever (performance)
With the support of Günther Watté (chocolatier)
Practical info
- From 10 October 2015 until 10 April 2016
- Every two weeks during six months
- Admission: free
Location
Stadspark Antwerpen (on the side of Quinten Matsyslei, next to the playground and skate rink)
About the artist
Yan Tomaszewski is a French and Polish artist born in 1984. He graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts in Paris. He has exhibited individually at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź (2014), at Asymetria Gallery in Warsaw (2013), at Primo Piano in Paris (2012), and collectively at Centre Pompidou in Paris (2015), at Chalet Society in Paris (2013), at Manifesta 9 in Genk (2012).
Twice a year Middelheim Museum and district organisation Klein Antwerpen invite a (inter)national artist to present a new project for an empty plinth in the Antwerp Stadspark (City Park). For this edition YAN TOMASZEWSKI was selected out of an open call, launched by Middelheim Museum and AIR Antwerpen.