After Image (Bouquet V)' by Scheltens & Abbenes
In the first room you will find 'After Image (Bouquet V),' tapestry by Maurice Scheltens and Liesbeth Abbenes executed by the Brabant weaving company EE Exclusives. It is a fragment of a larger whole that adorns King Willem Alexander's Ten Bosch House as a wall hanging. The source of inspiration is popular historical flower still lifes that refer to the transience of life. Cultivated flowers also symbolized wealth. In the exhibition you can hear the complete story behind this artwork.
Then and now
Tapestries have traditionally been used to insulate homes of the wealthy. The images on them matter and great battles, myths and sagas are favorites. Near this artwork you can see the design drawing of a tapestry by Bernard of Orley. The tapestry hung in the Castle of Breda. The contemporary tapestry is a subtle contrast to it. While Van Orley depicts the continuity of the Nassau dynasty, Scheltens & Abbenes show that the lives of monarchs and ordinary people are equally fleeting.
'Contemporary Paradise' by Kelly Christogiannis
In the second room, you will encounter two works of art by Kelly Christogiannis. A painting and a wall sculpture. Myths and stories hold her interest. The themes that inspired her for this commission are faith, power and the environment of Breda.
Then and now
'Contemporary Paradise' is inspired by stories about Joachim Gillis, a 16th-century Breda city administrator who is known to have had a great love of flowers. The boundary between desire greed is what the artist is exploring here.
A cross splinter is the starting point for the artwork "Slippery Hands. Where once church and faith provided footholds in the search for meaning and a meaningful life, that is now completely different. The splinter slips through several hands and thus links to the question of where people today find hope and solace.
'Peace of Munster 1648-1998' by Joan Fontcuberta
The historic struggle between Breda and Spain is the theme of the triptych Fontcuberta made for Breda to mark 350 years of the Treaty of Munster, the peace treaty that marked the end of the Eighty Years' War. An important source of inspiration is the period surrounding the peace treaty and the struggles that preceded it. The medieval custom of reusing parchment and "overwriting" old messages is reflected in this work.
Joan Fontcuberta has created a layered work of art. The source of inspiration is Vélazquez's painting of the surrender of Breda in 1625 and two Dutch works about the recapture of the city in 1637. Mixed Dutch and Spanish blood drops form a layer over the images below. The artist states: '... I am concerned with its microscopic structure and form. Blood today has a purely negative meaning. But in the past, the meaning of blood has been much richer. It was a symbol for life, for birth, for identity, for anarchy. In this triptych, blood has taken on more the meaning of atonement.
