KMSKA stages major Antony Gormley exhibition across museum and city

On Saturday, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) will open the largest solo exhibition by British sculptor Antony Gormley ever staged on the European mainland.

The exhibition, Geestgrond, was created specifically for the KMSKA and curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Alongside sculptures and large-scale installations, visitors can discover early sketches, notebooks, drawings, photographs and new works by Gormley.

For more than five decades, the 75-year-old artist has explored the relationship between the human body, space and the natural world. He is internationally known for monumental public artworks, including Angel of the North in northern England and Exposure in the Netherlands.

“My work asks the questions: what can sculpture do and what does it feel like to be alive?” Gormley said.

For the first time since the museum reopened in 2022, all of the KMSKA’s modern galleries are being used as exhibition space. The exhibition route also extends beyond the museum itself to the roof, Museumplein and the Antwerp quays, with more than 100 works by the artist.

“This collaboration with a world-class contemporary artist underscores the ambition of the KMSKA,” said chairman Luk Lemmens. “With this project, we not only explore the boundaries of the museum building itself but also dive into the public space.”

The title Geestgrond refers both to the sandy soil formed in the Low Countries during the Ice Age and to the connection between the spiritual and physical worlds. Rather than functioning as a traditional retrospective, the exhibition places Gormley’s work in conversation with pieces from the museum collection by artists including James Ensor, Auguste Rodin and Julio González.

One of the exhibition’s centrepieces is The Heart, described by curator Christov-Bakargiev as an intimate “Wunderkammer” offering insight into Gormley’s artistic process through notebooks, experiments and archival material.

The exhibition culminates in Cave, a monumental walk-in installation made from enormous steel plates that fills an entire gallery space.

“It forms the absolute highlight of the exhibition and immediately raises the question of where art is precisely located: not only in the object itself, but in the experience of the viewer,” Christov-Bakargiev said.

KMSKA general director Carmen Willems described the exhibition as an ambitious project that “elevates the museum experience to the very highest level” while shedding new light on the museum’s permanent collection.

_{​#FlandersNewsService |British artist Antony Gormley standing amid his artwork ‘Resting Place II’ ​ © PHOTO JADE GAO / AFP}

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