In 2012 the Middelheim Museum added a new exhibition area to its grounds — the Hortiflora flower garden (previously part of the Nachtegalen Park), a formal garden which is concealed behind a screen of dense foliage. This year the museum’s summer exhibition, My Little Paradise, thrusts Hortiflora firmly in the spotlight, as the garden’s design is based on the concept of the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden, which has taken on several meanings in art and literature since the Middle Ages. For Erasmus it was a place for introspection and contemplation. The (once so powerful) Catholic patrons of the arts considered it a metaphor for the Annunciation and a representation of the Garden of Eden whereas artists from the Flemish Primitives onwards thought it offered an amazing opportunity to experiment with perspective and space.
Nowadays the enclosed garden is associated with quite different things. It has become an ordinary part of our everyday environment, the perfect place to create a little paradise of our own. We do this literally: Flemish gardens, front and back, are famous, notorious even, for their extreme creativity expressed in just a few square meters. But regardless of our geographic possibilities we also cherish the dream (secretly or otherwise) of a place that is determined purely and entirely by our own preferences. A stilt house beneath palm trees, incessant sun, endless leisure, unlimited freedom… Each one more tangible than the next. Our Western fantasies often have an exotic flavour. But one man’s paradise is another man’s purgatory. What holds an attraction for one man, may be considered banal, disturbing even, by another. And what price are we willing to be completely carefree?
The hortus conclusus is such a seminal motif in art history that the Middelheim Museum could hardly afford to not explore the implicit meanings of the new museum grounds. Together with a group of artists we will examine these to see whether we can chart the consequences for contemporary sculpture (or, more accurately, for spatial art).
My Little Paradise gives seven national and international artists the opportunity to reflect about the tension between private and public, the boundaries of personal and psychological space, voluntary isolation and involuntary exclusion. More than sufficient subject matter for an exciting group exhibition designed by Hans Op de Beeck, who is also the first selected artist, and Sara Weyns, curator of the Middelheim Museum.
- Introductory film in NL, EN: hall of the castle
- Visitor text in NL, FR, EN: free
- Catalogue: available from August 2013, subscribe by e-mail to middelheimmuseum@stadantwerpen.be
Participating artists
- David Altmejd (1974, Canada)
- John Cale (1942, Wales)
- Janet Cardiff (1957, Canada) & George Bures Miller (1960, Canada)
- Carsten Höller (1961, Belgium)
- Hans op de Beeck (1969, Belgium)
- Pascale Marthine Tayou (1967, Cameroon)
- Leon Vranken (1975, Belgium)