Barok Burez
For Antwerp’s baroque year 2018, the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom) invited Athos Burez for a solo exhibition spanning eight floors of its walking boulevard. He responded with some 80 new works: an idiosyncratic, contemporary view of the genres of the baroque – still lifes, portraits, landscapes and interiors.
Athos Burez merges historical baroque elements with contemporary imagery, often in striking contrast. His almost surreal take on familiar images leaves the photographs suspended between two worlds, while their abundance and variety come together, as in a collage, into an entirely new baroque visual culture. It was his first solo exhibition in Antwerp.
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Athos Burez merges historical baroque elements with contemporary imagery, often in striking contrast. His almost surreal take on familiar images leaves the photographs suspended between two worlds, while their abundance and variety come together, as in a collage, into an entirely new baroque visual culture. It was his first solo exhibition in Antwerp.
view a selection →
Barok Burez / Baroque Burez, an essay · Siska Lyssens
When Athos Burez showed me around his Baroque Burez exhibition before it officially opened, I was amazed. I knew his previous work, of course. But I wasn’t prepared for the grandeur, intricate detailing and the sheer brilliance of what I saw this time. Stepping into his MAS (Museum aan de Stroom) show is like stepping into his fertile mind, rife with references and artistic vitality.
Burez’ images evoke a strong emotion, thanks to their scale, their intense colours and their expressive compositions. Even the upward movement one makes as a visitor – progressively higher, up to the tenth floor – has a dramatism of its own, going skywards in crescendo.
The Antwerp-based photographer created a completely new series for the MAS, a cultural institution in the ‘Eilandje’ area of Antwerp that is dedicated to local history and its connection to the world. 2018 is the Flemish city’s baroque year, and one would be hard pressed to find a photographer more suited to this artistic style than Burez. He’s not one to adapt to whichever aesthetic is in fashion – from the start of his image-making career, he’s developed a highly individual style characterized by a dramatic use of light, theatrical atmospheres, carefully thought-out compositions and mysterious narratives, always with a whiff of suspense. In his still life too, Burez demonstrates a great sense of composition juxtaposed with an uncanny eye for intriguing objects and tactile combinations.
For Baroque Burez, the Antwerp-based photographer has composed contemporary versions of still life, portrait and history painting. In each genre, the extent of Burez’ research is evident through the many symbolic parallels with the baroque that are the result of Burez’ intellectual curiosity and his lively imagination.
Take, for instance, his version of Rubens’ Descent from the Cross – the world’s most reproduced image until the 19th century. Burez reproduces it too, in a setting that reads as classical courtesy of the huge Corinthian columns framing the biblical scene. But in Burez’ scenario, Jesus Christ does not descend from a cross. Rather, he’s taken down from the scaffolding of Brussels’ courthouse, which is currently being renovated. Around him are the usual lamenting characters of Mary, Magdalene, and others, dressed in intensely hued draped robes. There’s a little Cherub, too, but we’re made to wonder: who graffitied Jesus’ epitaph?
It’s not difficult to make the connection to the concept of the Wunderkammer in many of the Baroque Burez photographs. The Wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosities, is an encyclopedic collection of objects often reproduced in engravings and painting. The genre came into being during the Renaissance and developed well into the baroque. Exhibiting precious objects acquired during pilgrimages, colonial expeditions or through exchange, they were microcosms that displayed knowledge and riches. Botanical specimens, minerals, shells, preserved animals, coins, medals, ornate beakers, porcelain, and historical artifacts could all be part of such a cabinet.
The theme befits Burez especially well. In his own home, he’s amassed a collection of curiosities that he often uses as props in his shoots, and he has a weakness for antiques and second hand finds that have had an unknown, previous life. For this project, he’s gladly made use of the archive of the museum, that’s filled to the rim with beautifully crafted utensils dating from bygone eras.
The still lifes in this series have an ethereal serenity that reminds of Irving Penn – especially the more stripped down ones. But even these, and more so the more elaborate images, are repositories of knowledge and imagination. While composed of exotic flowers and insects, precious stones and vanitas symbols, Burez also uses more mundane contemporary objects to inject a more poignant meaning to his compositions. It’s a jolting feeling to encounter an egg baked sunny side up, a melting popsicle, a plastic bucket, a crushed Coke can, a cigarette butt or a white plastic milk bottle in these still lifes. They bring our minds back to the current moment – perhaps make us think of our planet’s pollution? – but most strikingly, they remind us of the universality with which we imbue the objects that surround us with significance.
In a few portraits, set against the historical background of several buildings and interiors in Flanders and beyond, Burez sneaks in similar signifiers of our current times. An electric heater sits in the corner of a stately female sitter’s portrait in one photograph; a racecar-crazy little boy’s bedroom takes centre stage in a grand ballroom in another.
The details in Burez’ extensive series are prolific – one can keep looking at them and discover more. There’s a real pleasure in experiencing the same sense of awe while gazing at a Frans Snyders painting – who specialized in animal still life – as at a richly decorated banquet table as shot by Burez. The same elements are at play: intense colours, the energy between life and death. Burez’ history scenes manipulate light and the illusion of movement as a Rubens painting does. Burez’ portraits emit a sensuality and feeling of proximity as great as any Jordaens.
The capacity to give life to stories of the imagination is not bound to any era – moreover, contemporary artistic production can be an extension of the same visual culture that gave rise to baroque, Burez shows. In resurrecting the baroque into the present by creating his own interpretation of the unexpected, the passionate, the weird and the wonderful, Burez establishes himself as a contemporary master.
Siska Lyssens
Burez’ images evoke a strong emotion, thanks to their scale, their intense colours and their expressive compositions. Even the upward movement one makes as a visitor – progressively higher, up to the tenth floor – has a dramatism of its own, going skywards in crescendo.
The Antwerp-based photographer created a completely new series for the MAS, a cultural institution in the ‘Eilandje’ area of Antwerp that is dedicated to local history and its connection to the world. 2018 is the Flemish city’s baroque year, and one would be hard pressed to find a photographer more suited to this artistic style than Burez. He’s not one to adapt to whichever aesthetic is in fashion – from the start of his image-making career, he’s developed a highly individual style characterized by a dramatic use of light, theatrical atmospheres, carefully thought-out compositions and mysterious narratives, always with a whiff of suspense. In his still life too, Burez demonstrates a great sense of composition juxtaposed with an uncanny eye for intriguing objects and tactile combinations.
For Baroque Burez, the Antwerp-based photographer has composed contemporary versions of still life, portrait and history painting. In each genre, the extent of Burez’ research is evident through the many symbolic parallels with the baroque that are the result of Burez’ intellectual curiosity and his lively imagination.
Take, for instance, his version of Rubens’ Descent from the Cross – the world’s most reproduced image until the 19th century. Burez reproduces it too, in a setting that reads as classical courtesy of the huge Corinthian columns framing the biblical scene. But in Burez’ scenario, Jesus Christ does not descend from a cross. Rather, he’s taken down from the scaffolding of Brussels’ courthouse, which is currently being renovated. Around him are the usual lamenting characters of Mary, Magdalene, and others, dressed in intensely hued draped robes. There’s a little Cherub, too, but we’re made to wonder: who graffitied Jesus’ epitaph?
It’s not difficult to make the connection to the concept of the Wunderkammer in many of the Baroque Burez photographs. The Wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosities, is an encyclopedic collection of objects often reproduced in engravings and painting. The genre came into being during the Renaissance and developed well into the baroque. Exhibiting precious objects acquired during pilgrimages, colonial expeditions or through exchange, they were microcosms that displayed knowledge and riches. Botanical specimens, minerals, shells, preserved animals, coins, medals, ornate beakers, porcelain, and historical artifacts could all be part of such a cabinet.
The theme befits Burez especially well. In his own home, he’s amassed a collection of curiosities that he often uses as props in his shoots, and he has a weakness for antiques and second hand finds that have had an unknown, previous life. For this project, he’s gladly made use of the archive of the museum, that’s filled to the rim with beautifully crafted utensils dating from bygone eras.
The still lifes in this series have an ethereal serenity that reminds of Irving Penn – especially the more stripped down ones. But even these, and more so the more elaborate images, are repositories of knowledge and imagination. While composed of exotic flowers and insects, precious stones and vanitas symbols, Burez also uses more mundane contemporary objects to inject a more poignant meaning to his compositions. It’s a jolting feeling to encounter an egg baked sunny side up, a melting popsicle, a plastic bucket, a crushed Coke can, a cigarette butt or a white plastic milk bottle in these still lifes. They bring our minds back to the current moment – perhaps make us think of our planet’s pollution? – but most strikingly, they remind us of the universality with which we imbue the objects that surround us with significance.
In a few portraits, set against the historical background of several buildings and interiors in Flanders and beyond, Burez sneaks in similar signifiers of our current times. An electric heater sits in the corner of a stately female sitter’s portrait in one photograph; a racecar-crazy little boy’s bedroom takes centre stage in a grand ballroom in another.
The details in Burez’ extensive series are prolific – one can keep looking at them and discover more. There’s a real pleasure in experiencing the same sense of awe while gazing at a Frans Snyders painting – who specialized in animal still life – as at a richly decorated banquet table as shot by Burez. The same elements are at play: intense colours, the energy between life and death. Burez’ history scenes manipulate light and the illusion of movement as a Rubens painting does. Burez’ portraits emit a sensuality and feeling of proximity as great as any Jordaens.
The capacity to give life to stories of the imagination is not bound to any era – moreover, contemporary artistic production can be an extension of the same visual culture that gave rise to baroque, Burez shows. In resurrecting the baroque into the present by creating his own interpretation of the unexpected, the passionate, the weird and the wonderful, Burez establishes himself as a contemporary master.
Siska Lyssens
credits
concept & realisationAthos Burez, Chanel Selleslach at Nono C. Productions, the MAS team led by Marieke van Bommel
musesLio Barbé de Meurichy, Jens Burez, Gabrielle Duchesse Divine, Gilles Polet, Tamino Moharam Fouad, Zelda Von Trapp, Sam Pauwels, De Gulden Sporen, Joke en Tille Van Den Heuvel, Leen Van Reusel, Chloé Geers, Lily Joan Roberts, Thalis & Oceane Foulon, Merel Van Wessing, Silvio Migliore, Olivier Chapusette, Emma Balemans, Kim Peers, Jelle Delcroix, Victor Dumont, Annelies Demey, An-Sofie de Deurwaerder, Noena Eze, Victor Boni, Aster Henderieckx, Tuur Steenwegen, Maxime Gyssels, Laura Buydaert, Marie Gregoire, Marijke Respeel, Remke van Elstlande, Benny Van den Meulengracht-Vrancx, Jinte Deprez, Ramy Moharam Fouad, Anne-Laure Vandeputte, Marie Maite, Jordan Vanschel, Efrat Galai, Myrthe Mellaerts, Anke Mellaerts, Felieke Delcomunne, Luna Rous, Kiki Ilegems, Stella E Höttler, Siebe @ Models Office, Vicky Lugentz, Margarita Avtenyeva, Daan & Emma @ Dominique Models, Thomas Qualiara, Aimilios Sara Poglou, Elizabeth Wolfs, Dotty Verbist, Tina @ Jackie Lee, Rubben Douwe and Bodi
locationsStad Antwerpen, Vleeshuis, Brouwershuis, Hotel d’Hane Steenhuyse, Egmontpaleis, Justitiepaleis Brussel, Opera Gent, Smith van Gelderhuis, Kasteel Rosendael, Scapa, Linderhof, A-tower Antwerpen
catalogueSiska Lyssens (essay), Lisbeth Antoine (graphic design), BAI (publisher)
thanks toJens Burez, Viktor Leestmans (taxidermy), Jordan Vanschel, Roel Van Tittelboom, Chanel Selleslach, The Artists Office, Sabine Peeters, Emmanuelle Bastiaenssen, Freya Gendera, Zoe Hordies, Mandy Louwet, Line Oshin Haseldonckx, Frank Wouters, Ina Peeters, Naomi Velissariou, De Vlaamse Opera, Ann Demeulemeester, Yelizavetta Volosovskaya, Van den Weghe, Roen Lommelen, Marc Van Vlaanderen, Virginie During, Olivier Fimiers, Shannon and Omgevingen.be