The Sphinx is certainly one of the most powerful symbols of the attraction of the East by the West. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless, with the head of a woman, the haunches of a lion and the wings of a bird.
Koen Broucke made a diptych of a Sphinx commissioned by Rasa this summer. As a part of the project, it was exhibited in a private house of musicians during several months, were it served as a background for musical performances, encountering the east and the West.
The Sphinx is also described in the Oxford dictionary as an enigmatic or inscrutable person.
So, the sphinx in the exhibition is associated with works of earlier performances, combining dancers and pianists.
Special thanks to Rasa
Koen Broucke (Belgium, 1965) is an extremely versatile artist. He knows how to give shape to his unique universe through image, text and music and the result is incredibly fascinating. Alternating between reality and imagination, historical facts and fantasy, a self-written scenario in which historical figures and fictional characters is brought to life in his work. With his drawings, paintings and performances Koen Broucke has developed a magnificent but also a very distinctive personal style. Guaranteeing him a very special place in the landscape of contemporary Belgian art.