Désordre sacré

Désordre sacré
Kasper Bosmans, Martin Chramosta, Zuzanna Czebatul, Sina Oberhänsli, Marie-Eve Perez, Léopold Rabus, Juana Robles, Pamela Rosenkranz, Slavs and Tatars, Caroline von Gunten, Gaia Vincensini, Lauryn Youden
30.11.24–26.0125
Opening, Friday, 29.11.24, 6pm

The popularity of a theme is fairly well measured by its presence in pop culture, and in recent years it seems that references to the Middle Ages have flourished. You'll find everything from Hollywood feature films to specialist books, series, novels, comics, podcasts and even festivals. The Middle Ages are everywhere. It is even making inroads into the political world, with the witch, one of the most recurrent medievalist archetypes, being taken up as a symbol by Western feminist movements as antithetical to the masculine.

Whatever the reasons for this current boom, the choice of aesthetic and narrative elements used in these reinventions is of particular interest because it says much more about our contemporary times than about the Middle Ages themselves. Just as in the futuristic visions of science fiction, our society is projected in this distorting mirror, with its fears and aspirations. This imagery is therefore less anodyne and superficial than it might at first appear. Contemporary art, although less democratised, is also a means of taking the ambient temperature; it is permeable to popular influences and this taste for the medieval certainly marks the imagination of artists. What aesthetics define medievalism today? Do they exist in contemporary art? What forms do they take in the works? These are the questions that will be addressed in Désordre sacré.

Rather than inviting artists to produce new works for the exhibition, the curatorial team has sought out existing works whose aesthetic elements and codes are inspired by medieval imagery. As a result, the exhibition presents a wide variety of works, in terms of both subject and technique. From the ogival openings of cathedrals, to emblems, medallions and coats of arms, to mythological and esoteric figures, the works on display include tapestries, chests, ceramics, enamels, altars, magical and mysterious objects, fantastical animals and chimeras.

They are inspired be the ogival openings of cathedrals, emblems, medallions and coats of arms, mythological and esoteric figures, tapestries, chests, ceramics, enamels, altars, magical and mysterious objects, fantastical animals and chimeras.