Berlinde De Bruyckere...

7:57 p.m.

The Sacristy of a church is the place where priests get ready for service and where liturgical vestments are kept: an almost sacred room for those who profess Catholic worship. However, in the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore-Benedict Claustra Onlus in Venice, this space became, for a few months, a forest of trees chopped down by supernatural forces.

In reality, these are not trees, but wax trunks that look weak on metal boards, as if they were muscle fibers about to be dissected. A dark vision that exemplifies the process of indiscriminate, but in this case, it carries a hopeful message, that of resurrection: when this tree becomes a useful object, it will come to life again. Rebirth is precisely the point of this artwork by artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (Belgium, 1964).

City of Refuge III, by Berlinde De Bruyckere (2023-2024)

The exhibition was titled City of Refuge III and was conceived for the sacred spaces of the Abbey in direct relation to the architecture, the mission (a place of hospitality and refuge), the symbolism and history of the place.

In this post we only describe the site-specific installation of the Sacristy, a work created from found objects (the metal plates) plus wax sculptures representing trunks: a post-apocalyptic scene of destruction in which nature was fragmented.

City of Refuge III, by Berlinde De Bruyckere (2023-2024)

The metal plates are tables for operations, restoration, healing or delivery of the object, while the fallen tree looks like the body of a tormented martyr (an association with the torment of Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows tied to a tree). The installation is an example of the consequence of ecological disaster, despite the artist's good will in making us believe that everything can change. Transformation, transcendence and reconciliation in the face of mortality.