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over Berlinde De Bruyckere

Berlinde De Bruyckere makes haunting distortions of organic forms with wax, animal skin, hair, textile, metal and wood. Key motives in her oeuvre are the fragility and vulnerability of man, the suffering body – both human and animal – and the overwhelming power of nature. De Bruyckere’s work deals with the fundamental human quest for transformation, transcendence and reconciliation in the light of mortality.

De Bruyckere is strongly influenced by traditions from the Flemish Renaissance. Drawing on the legacy of the European Old Masters and Christian iconography, as well as mythology and cultural lore, De Bruyckere interweaves existing histories with new narratives – to create a psychological terrain of pathos, tenderness and unease. The duality of love and suffering, danger and protection, life and death and the human need for understanding are the universal themes with which De Bruyckere has been concerned since the beginning of her career. “I want to show how helpless a body can be,” says De Bruyckere, “Which is nothing to be afraid of – it can be something beautiful.”