Contemporary art at Park Abbey

‘Museum PARCUM and M are natural partners'

The Park Abbey complex is finally free of scaffolding after nearly fifteen years of restoration work. The celebrations begin with a weekend of festivities on 24 and 25 October – which also marks the opening of a special exhibition: ‘Threading Landscapes: Art at Park Abbey’.

Wouter Jaspers (Museum PARCUM) and Eva Wittocx (M Leuven) explain the origins of the collaboration.

But first a little background on the Abbey, which will be celebrating its 900th anniversary in three years’ time.

Wouter: ‘In 1129, the Count of Leuven donated his hunting grounds to the Norbertines for the foundation of an abbey – hence the name, Park Abbey. Apart from a few periods of war, it has always been inhabited. The monks had an enormous impact: religiously, of course, but also on the landscape and the economy. At its height, the abbey owned some 3,500 hectares of land within a 35-kilometre radius. Just under 42 hectares of that remain today. It is one of the best-preserved abbey complexes in Western Europe.’

‘At the end of the last century, the Abbey was in a rather poor state. The Norbertines could no longer manage its upkeep on their own. In 2011, therefore, they granted the City of Leuven a long-term lease on the site. The City established a company, Erfgoedsite Abdij van Park, to restore, manage and repurpose the Abbey. This involved more than simply rehabilitating a heritage site: a great deal of thought went into which functions and partners would be suitable for each of the buildings.’

‘PARCUM is one of those partners. We are both a centre of expertise in religious art and culture and a museum. Our mission is to make the Abbey’s heritage – its art treasures, for example – accessible to a wider public. We also organise exhibitions on religious heritage. We see these primarily as a means of engaging with social issues.’

Helpline

Wouter: ‘We wanted to organise a contemporary art exhibition to celebrate the completion of the site’s restoration. The idea was to invite artists working today to explore the Abbey’s soul and how we might write a new story for the next nine hundred years. Since a contemporary art project was outside our sphere of expertise, we approached M.’

Eva: ‘M and PARCUM are natural partners. We both have extensive collections that include religious heritage, and our work is both contemporary and topical. We have collaborated on several occasions, and there will certainly be more opportunities to come.’

‘We assisted PARCUM in drafting and issuing an open call to find exhibition curators. We discussed and ranked the applications with a five-member jury. We then invited the authors of the strongest proposals for a meeting – essentially a sort of job interview. Ultimately, we selected a collective of four curators: María Inés Rodríguez, Katya García-Antón, Ana Sokoloff and Daniel Feldman. The key figure, María Inés, is Colombian but is based in Brussels. The others live in various parts of the world and are particularly active on the international scene. We found that quite interesting: rather than simply letting a local curator do their own thing, we wanted to bring the world into the exhibition and work with international names. And they, in turn, chose a combination of local and international artists.’

‘I think the open call and the selection process were our main contributions to the exhibition. But we remained available throughout, as a sort of on-call support line. Our colleagues at PARCUM would occasionally ring us if they were unsure about how to deal with something. That wasn’t part of any official arrangement; we simply helped from a sense of collegiality.’

Wouter: ‘It was very helpful. Whenever we rang, we knew that someone would actually pick up the phone.’

Eva Wittocx van M Leuven, foto: Aurélie Geurts voor M Leuven

Wandering route

Eva: ‘From the outset, we laid down a few guidelines for the curators. They were free to use the entire site, both indoors and outdoors. The starting point was to develop a varied, site-specific group exhibition. We also wanted them to work with several artists, rather than staging a monographic presentation.’

Wouter: ‘When it came to the actual content, the curatorial team always sought dialogue. They came to talk to our on-site partners – the brewery and organic farm, for example. Who was interested in collaborating with artists? Archivist and curator Stefan Van Lani, the Abbey’s living encyclopaedia, showed the curatorial team and the artists around. The idea was to give them a feel for the spirit of the site and to reflect on their contribution. Which work from my oeuvre would resonate with this place? Or do I want to create something new? And which space would be most suitable?’

Eva: ‘I love how broadly the theme of religion has been interpreted. PARCUM is a centre for religious culture – so it’s certainly not just about Catholic heritage.’

‘Among other things, the exhibition asks what religion can mean in our society. And it’s wonderful how the artists’ diverse voices and backgrounds open up that question.’

‘In the end, twenty-five artists are participating, ten of whom are creating new work. Carlos Casas, for example, is developing a new variation of ‘Bestiari’, a work he exhibited at the Venice Biennale two years ago: an installation featuring sounds and abstract images of nature, but this time tailored to the Abbey and the specific space in which it will be displayed.’

Kunstwerk uit ‘Verweven Landschappen’: ‘Glowing Phalanges # 168 -182’, Ahmed Umar, © Ahmed Umar

Wouter: ‘It’s turned out to be a wonderful route – although “route” might not be quite the right word. The idea is that you wander around the site and let the artworks take you by surprise. And hopefully, they will get you thinking. Although we’ll also be providing a visitor guide, of course, so that you can find them all, if you wish.’

‘In principle, this is a temporary exhibition. It is intended to help people discover the site through artworks, and to attract an audience that looks beyond the historic buildings alone. But we are considering whether some of the ten new creations could stay.’

‘And we’d also like to see if we can establish an artist-in-residence programme. It’s such a beautiful place. The artists all said as much: there’s a tranquillity here, a beauty that moves you. It would be a shame not to make the most of those qualities.’