Michaël Aerts

Michaël Aerts creates objects, sculptures, installations and related drawings. The works of Michaël Aerts are to be situated in the context of socio-cultural history and more specifically of the symbols and forms it created in art and architectural style since the Middle Ages.

Traces of the rich Belgian surrealist tradition and cultural inheritance are important elements in his iconography. Another important feature is Aerts’s particular interest in power induced imagery, such as globes and monuments.

His treatment and choice of materials is another remarkable aspect: a consistent and repeated use of a selection of materials which evoke the poetical content of the work in their own way, constantly generates an additional layer of meaning. All of this is done with great conscience of the historical use of both materials and objects.

The associative structure and iconographic content of the works reveal a passion for cultural styles and great in depth analysis of their meaning. Themes which keep coming back are the material languages of power, lust and sensuality and the ideological transformation that occurs when these are shifted to another (or present day) context. These ingredients make for a peculiar and recognisable atmosphere that pervades drawings and installations alike.

Filip Luyckx, artistic director of Sint-Lukas Gallerij (Brussels, BE) comments: ‘Michaël Aerts appropriates various historical forms of which the significance is blurred to say the least. Modern day image culture constantly uses forms from different continents, eras and cultural layers. Michaël Aerts recognizes that untouchable form principles do not exist, because what we would like to perceive as a historical appearance is also the product of a past syncretism.’

Michaël Aerts is currently working on a range of mobile monuments. These sculptures or monuments are constructed from flightcase elements, normally used as a shipment material wich allows easy building up and breaking down.

By emphasizing the mobility of the monument, the work reflects the dislocation of the origins of a monument and the idea of transmigration and consumption of religion, belief and ideology in contemporary society. The meaning of the work changes on each location.