Lili Dujourie:
Mimesis
Until recently, the left plinth of the monumental staircase on the museum square was empty. Now, the new sculpture by Lili Dujourie commands attention. She created it on commission from the city of Antwerp on the occasion of the museum’s reopening.
Mimesis is the first artwork Lili Dujourie has created for public space, as well as her first work made in bronze. Dujourie’s sculpture makes unexpected use of the plinth flanking the left side of the KMSKA staircase. Traditionally, plinths serve to create a distance between the artwork and the viewer, between art and the “ordinary world.” Here, however, the artwork extends outward and reaches the ground: it takes root, so to speak, in Leopold de Waelplaats and finds a foothold in the shared public space of the city. In this way, Dujourie connects the museum to the world and narrows the gap between the street and the imposing museum building.
Lili Dujourie’s design was selected from three proposals submitted by equally internationally renowned artists, invited to participate in this site-specific commission. The artwork is part of the Art in the City collection, the municipal collection of public artworks in Antwerp.
About the artwork
The clear lines of the bronze root section reference drawing and painting, here not set on paper or canvas but against a backdrop of blue stone. The color and texture of the bronze work were coordinated with other artworks in the immediate vicinity: Fame by Léon Mignon (1896, also called Homage to Anthony van Dyck, KMSKA collection) on the opposite plinth, and Deep Fontain by Cristina Iglesias (2006, Art in the City collection). With the latter work, Mimesis also shares a reference to nature and organic forms.
Nature, together with the human form, is perhaps the most inspiring motif in Western art history. And just as the painted or sculpted bodies in the KMSKA collection do not present a realistic depiction of the average human body but rather convey an ideal image, nature has long been the subject of an artistic pursuit of perfection. The tradition of imitating the ideal world in the arts is historically referred to by the ancient Greek word mimesis.
Dujourie’s new artwork refers to this tradition while also expanding upon it. Here, there is no idealized or naturalistic imitation of a tree, but rather a representation of the concept of a tree. Of tree roots that, unseen in the darkness, have been part of a vital system for millennia—a global, underground network of collaboration and regeneration. What normally remains invisible, beneath the surface, becomes here an object of reflection and observation.
Photos: Sigrid Spinnox
Symbol of growth and origin
The bronze network of tree roots “growing” over the plinth carries many symbolic associations that, over time, will intertwine with—or grow alongside—the city and the museum. Dujourie demonstrates that a museum (and its building) can also be a source of life. The roots also refer to the past as a nourishing foundation: just as tree roots are intricately branched, so too is (art) history always complex and multifaceted, never linear. Roots are a powerful symbol of origin and inspiration, of sustenance and growth. As museums serve as repositories of heritage, we must not forget that this heritage itself has a complex and finely woven history emerging from diverse roots. The tree motif also invites an ecological reading of the work, evoking nature as a primal force in relation to human culture.
About Lili Dujourie
The work of Lili Dujourie (b. 1941, Roeselare, Belgium) combines influences from the Flemish Primitives, such as Jan Van Eyck, with her own artistic approach, developed from the late 1960s onward. Dujourie is both a solitary and central figure in Belgian art. Her core themes include the relationship between nature and culture, the passage and weight of time, and her pursuit of an emotional understanding of space. Her sculptural interventions explore the tension between painting and sculpture, between abstraction and figuration, and between their physical presence and their environment. She works in materials such as marble, papier-mâché, steel, lead, velvet, and ceramics, giving a central role to decoration and ornament, while playing with the sensuality and immediacy of the materials.
