Xavier MaryMX Temple

For his first solo exhibition in a museum, the young Belgian artist Xavier Mary (Liège, 1982) takes over the two large rooms of the BPS22, with two new productions created especially for the occasion.

Over the course of several trips to Cambodia, the artist was fascinated by the architecture of the ancient temples, the know-how of local sculptors, the ingenuity of mechanics, and the bustle of the cities in contrast with the beauty of the wild jungle. On the strength of these new experiences, he notably produced a video installation showing the creation of a stone sculpture (representing his initials, as he has been doing for a long time), from the point of inception by the craftsmen, to its abandonment in the heart of the jungle.

Using gigantic worn trucks tyres, Xavier Mary has also produced monumental sculptures that evoke the sacred temples of civilizations from Southeast Asia. Following the intuition that has guided him for several years, he links -in an effort to better merge them- different spatial, temporal and symbolic categories in a type of formal and conceptual syncretism that lays the foundations of a plastic vocabulary, specific to a now totally globalised 21st century.

Alongside these new creations, several older works punctuate the exhibition. While his influences may seem diverse and multiple, and even contradictory, looking at it in its entirety makes it possible to appreciate the coherence of the universe developed by this young artist, who is among the most promising of his generation.

Xavier Mary is represented by Baronian Xippas gallery, Brussels.

Exhibition : 08.06 > 01.09.2019