PLUS-ONE Gallery in collaboration with Gallery Sofie Van de Velde present ‘L’Heure Bleue’.
L’heure bleue is the moment when the sun has set, but the night has not fallen yet. The phenomenon of the blue hour happens right before sunrise or sunset when a state of natural lighting hits the sky and turns everything blue. This twilight moment only lasts a few moments, but it’s a pivot point that shivers in suspense.
Both gallery spaces will be the setting for this group exhibition
On a first level, art works will be selected with an emphasis on the color blue.
Up until the 19th century, the blue pigment ‘ultramarine’ was the most expensive color. The pigment was sourced from the precious stone ‘Lapis Lazuli’. The church dictated that this pigment should be used to paint images of the virgin Mary. Ultramarine thus became a symbol of holiness, virtue and modesty due to its economic value.
Although the color blue is here presented as an independence, the symbolism continues to sink into the contemporary art market. Blue paintings seem to sell up to 10% more expensive. By showing this curatorial frame within a commercial art gallery, the belly of the contemporary art market, the exhibition aims to give a critical reflection about the color blue in its individuality.
On a second level, L’heure bleue alludes to the idea of melancholy. The blue hour is an hour of change, a metamorphosis within the night. Moments cannot be hold on to, they slip through our fingers. This awakens the Melancholic. In Romanticism, the Melancholic became the archetype of the artist, who could only bear his consuming desires by expressing his creativity.
As a final layer, the exhibition seeks to glance at the future. Melancholy is a reflective state, one in which we feel sadness due to a loss, but also a desire to fix it. If we could stop and examine this moment of change, what are then the challenges of today? Can we participate in dialogues with other cultures, find unity in our differences? Melancholy drowns in nostalgia and tristesse, but she also finds happiness within.