Sculpture in Corten steel and enamel arches (1987)
With his “Belgica” sculpture the artist calls for reflection and imagination on the theme of the famous ship. The square was built with bricks from Boom (where the artist was born) and forms the general framework for the assemblage, which alludes to a metro undercarriage as much as to the masts of the boat of the same name. This ship explored the territories of the South Pole during a journey under the leadership of Baron Adrien de Gerlache from 1897 to 1899 and undertook the first winter stay in the Antarctic. In fresh and cheerful contrast with the severe sculpture in Corten steel, the seven arches covered in enamel paint stretch the colours of the rainbow across the entrance stairs to the station. With this natural, geometric construction, the artist alludes to the importance of preserving the environment of the South Pole for the sake of the earth’s climate and environment.
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CAMIEL VAN BREEDAM (Boom, 1936)
Van Breedam is concerned with presenting and using the object in itself, without disguise and in its physical and material form. He creates combinations of paintings, collages and assemblages to create three dimensional constructions which he integrates into larger environments. In these creations, personal and technical allusions are combined with historical, geographical and ecological references. The visual parts, construction elements, the contributions of colour and shape, are chosen according to the whole of the work of art. In Anglo-Saxon countries this genre was inspired by pop-art and in France by the “nouveau réalisme” (New realism) movement. In this country, the genre was embodied by the artists Vic Gentils, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Remo Martini and of course Camiel Van Breedam. They share a love of placing objects under the spotlight, but each of them adopts his own viewpoint, so that in each case they reveal other possibilities of the genre.
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