Art history began with animals when over 30,000 years ago human beings painted them on the walls of caves. In the centuries that followed animal imagery was mainly symbolic in function and in the Middle Ages animals appeared in all sorts of pictures but since the 17th century they have taken on a really major rôle. Animals, both real and fantastic, occupy an important place in art. The exhibition The Beauty of the Beast confronts artworks from the Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century art with contemporary artists including Atelier Les Deux Garçons, Pascal Bernier, Karin Borghouts, Caroline Coolen, Wim Delvoye, Jan Fabre, Gideon Kiefer, and Koen Vanmechelen. For many years Koen Vanmechelen has been trying to create a cosmopolitan chicken by crossing national breeds. He displays a mantle and scepter from this Cosmopolitan Chicken Project in the castle, while in the park wander live … pigs. They form part of Lucy Boar, a new chapter in Vanmechelen’s tale of crossbreeding. A herd of sheep is grazing in another meadow. They form part of a collective art project, from sheep to shawl, in which visitors can participate.
EXHIBITION FACTS:
25 MAY - 15 OCT, 2017
Individual visitors are welcome on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 1pm to 6pm. You can relax in the park bar afterwards with a Cuvée Antonine.
Group visits, with afternoon tea provided, take place by reservation only on weekdays between 10am and 6pm.
Guided tours for individual visitors, with afternoon tea, every Thursday in July and August at 2pm, by reservation only.
Castle d'Ursel
W. d'Urselstraat 9
2880 Hingene
BELGIUM
More information; www.kasteeldursel.be or view the broadcast on De Zevende Dag.