Golden Cord

Guy Pieters Gallery, Knokke (BE)
04 April - 16 May 2021

Golden Cord ©Koen Vanmechelen, Photo Gaétan Francken

Golden Cord

Golden Cord is a multimedia exhibition showing a series of bronze works and mesmerizing drawings.

The Golden Cord sculptures are hybrid works of phantasmagorical, composite animals. They carry the umbilical cord of a connection with the rest of the world. A golden membrane that stretches outwards – the Golden Cord – reveals them to have been born from a change of surroundings. They always carry that connection, another element that sends them on their way. There is an all-pervasive feeling of serendipity. Hence the golden element, which proves that wearing this form, the umbilical cord, is vital. Ultimately, this is what happens when life seeps inwards. The cord is an antenna, a horn, a connection. The unicorn is always present.

The mesmerizing drawings were made during the COVID-19 quarantine period. Koen only used a crayon, coffee, and a pen. The golden cord here is the unicorn who gives the motive to break out of a state of quarantine. He is the egg tooth who breaks from the inside and sets free. This radical action allows surprisingly unfamiliar hybridity to emerge. It is thrown into existence. Numerous revolutionary life forms present this. This process's omega is the foundation of a new world, which is the subject of this exhibition — a new being's potentiality. Dasein.

COSMOPOLITAN RENAISSANCE

In the basement, the artist presents what he calls the 'Cosmopolitan Renaissance' via plans and scale models of projects from all over the globe.

The world, our world, has changed spectacularly during the past decades. The fountain of knowledge has become accessible to all. The consequence is the emergence of a vast macrocosm of ideas. Every scale model here represents a sequence of a world in growth, a dome-like microcosm. The models show the possibility of what is yet impossible. Hence the DNA on the wall. It tells us that new configurations are formed, finding their way to come into existence. Heaven in limbo, the brand-new possible worlds present grow invisible and silently as mycelium. They are biding their time to surface as a completely new world designed to entice the viewer to think and create his own worlds.

From this belief, the belief that art belongs in society and engages with people, came the projects that are the basis for the plans and models on display. All, one by one projects with a consistent community focus, including: CosmoGolem, a global art-based children’s rights programme; the Walking Egg, which promotes fertility in the developing world; and Combat, a World War I remembrance project.

Exhibition Facts

Golden Cord
Guy Pieters Gallery
4 April – 16 May 2021

Open every day from 11 AM until 6 PM
Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday

Currently only by appointment. An appointment can be made via +32 (0)50 623 380

Guy Pieters Gallery
Albertplein 15 – 8300 Knokke-Heist
T. +32 (0)50 612 800 - www.guypietersgallery.com