For this anniversary edition, Luxembourg Art Week invites eleven galleries to participate in a travelling sculpture trail through a country already significantly marked by its commitment to this art form, as evidenced by the imposing sculpture by Richard Serra located on the Kirchberg Plateau. This offers a unique opportunity to rediscover the capital of the Grand Duchy, framed by a splendid array of recent works spread across ten stops along the Boulevard Royal and Avenue de la Liberté.
Early on, the gallery Lelong & Co. (Paris) became affiliated with Luxembourg Art Week, joining this constellation of artists, in addition to the exhibition showcased at its stand.
This year, it highlights the unique work of Marion Verboom, a young “builder,” as she refers to herself, who conceived Tectonies in 2019 for the exhibition Sculpture infinie : du moulage antique à la numérisation 3D. With a vertical form that rises like a syncretic totem, her module is meticulously covered in a golden hue drawn from ancient ornamental techniques.
This allure of the sacred, even ritualistic, is echoed in It Owl (2021) by Stefan Rinck, a champion of “wild abstraction,” whose monumental sculpture draws upon medieval myths and legends (Galerie Valerius, Luxembourg). Similarly, in the striking Strange Tree (2024), the artist Fabien Mérelle presents himself as a bust devoid of arms—an immense man-trunk freely navigating between species (the vegetal, the mineral) within the tradition of Roman portraiture (By Lara Sedbon, Paris).
Engaging with the living and its ecosystems is the pursuit of Guillaume Castel with Dulse (2021), a giant seaweed inspired by his explorations of underwater flora (Galerie Ariane C-Y, Paris). A comparable environmental sensitivity is evident in Nicolas Schneider’s Instant de paysage (2024), a series melancholically haunted by the disappearance of the plant kingdom (Galerie East, Strasbourg), as well as in the imaginative bestiary created by Max Coulon for Sculpture for a Square (Galerie Romero Paprocki, Paris).
Other works delight in transcending the boundaries of aesthetic categories. For instance, between sculpture and industrial design, the duo from Studio BISKT presents Balik Arches, crafted from extruded clay (Galerie La Peau de l'Ours, Brussels). There is also an exploration of the intersection between art and artisanal traditions, exemplified by ceramist Laura Pasquino, who is here attempting for the first time to develop a vertical module, rather than her usual spherical forms (Galerie Grège, Brussels).
For a complete change of scenery, one must not miss the refined, geometric, and immersive environments created by the iconoclastic Esther Stocker (Galerie Lee Bauwens, Brussels). Equally, the poetic steel structures forged by Carlos Albert deserve attention, as his work stands as a legacy in the footsteps of Eduardo Chillida and Martin Chirino (Galerie Aquilaluna, Liège). Not to be missed.
The Sculpture Trail is part of the Art Walk. It runs from 22 October to 24 November 2024.
