05 april 2024, Yves Joris
Melancholy in crescendo, a song for the end of an era
In a world steeped in twilight, where the whispering of the stars slowly fades into the noise of our own existence, the exhibition 'A Melody for the End of the Holocene' in Art Gallery De Wael 15 invites us to listen to the final notes of a lost melody. Toon Boeckmans, the artist behind the exhibition, challenges us to reflect on the end of an era and the birth of a new harmony. How does he approach this? With small, uncomplicated interventions that make us contemplate what we see. Or rather what we think we see.
The title of the exhibition alone evokes a sense of nostalgia, a melancholic melody echoing through the corridors of our imagination. The Holocene, a period of relative stability and abundance, is approaching its inevitable end. But amidst this melancholy arises a strange kind of beauty, an aesthetic of change and transformation that Boeckmans wants to share with us, as I imagine the background music of John Lee Hooker's Don’t look back echoing. “We're gonna live for the future, not the past.”
Toon Boeckmans, Untitled (Monade), 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
Boeckmans' work guides us through a landscape of lost memories and unfulfilled dreams. His sculptures, paintings and installations are like a journey through the ruins of a lost civilisation in which the remnants of the past merge with the promise of the future. Each artwork tells a story, a story of transience and rebirth, of chaos and creation. Some works have a title. Others invite us to look beyond the word 'Untitled' and find our own story. Black as Midnight on a Moonless Night carries as much blues in it as the earlier Don’t look back. But this time, it concerns a work by the artist in which he crafts a round wooden disk with epoxy resin, paint and varnish. At first glance, it seems pierced by nails, a playful reference to both cuneiform script and the more recent work of Günther Uecker. But when you take a closer look, you notice that they are adhesive fishing bobbers, suddenly turning the whole into a fishing trip on an ink-black night.
From Monad to Mother
At the heart of the exhibition, we find a symphony of contrasts – light and dark, order and disorder, life and death. Boeckmans invites us to dance on the edge of the abyss, to embrace what has been lost and to welcome what is yet to come. His work is a celebration of the human spirit, an ode to the power of imagination and creativity amidst the chaos of existence. And there is no better way to test our creativity than by connecting two works titled Untitled. With Untitled (Monad), the artist takes us to the Pythagoreans, where the monad was the first thing that 'was' and therefore holds a unique place in their thinking. We see an eggshell with a red dot at its centre. From this point, life emerged in the Holocene. In Untitled (Mother) – note the alliteration that accompanies both works through life – we take a step further. No longer 'mono', but a large sphere surrounded by smaller ones. The whole is enclosed in a protective frame. The artist couldn't convey a clearer message.
Toon Boeckmans, Untitled (Mother), 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
But perhaps the most important aspect of 'A Melody for the End of the Holocene' is not so much the message it conveys, but the questions it raises. What does it mean to live in a time of great change? How can we relate to the uncertainties of the future? And what melody will we compose for the next phase of our existence?
Dubito, ergo sum
In a discreet corner lies the work Der Zweifler/The Doubter, a reference to Bertolt Brecht's poem with the line ‘Nachdenklich betrachteten wir mit Neugier den zweifelnden Blauen Mann auf der Leinwand, sahen uns an und Begannen von vorne’. (The Doubter, Bertolt Brecht, 1937). The blue figure that seems to have stepped out of a music box from decades ago does its job, crawling under the skin and staying with us alongside the melody, a whisper of hope amidst the chaos. Perhaps this is the real gift of Toon Boeckmans' work – not just the memory of what was, but also the promise of what can be. And perhaps, just perhaps, there is still a place for beauty in this uncertain world.
Toon Boeckmans, Der Zweifler / De Twijfelaar, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
