DIDIER MAHIEU
THE ENACTMENT OF THE STONE

NK Gallery is pleased to announce “The Enactment of the Stone”, solo exhibition by established Belgian artist Didier Mahieu held during Antwerp Art Weekend. The opening will be held on 20th May, the exhibition will run till 25th June, 2016.

The exhibition “The Enactment Of The Stone” reflects on the topic of contemporary nomadism in a broader sense including multicultural societies, refugees problems and clash of cultural, political and economical issues.
We are nowadays witnessing something, that can be compared to shift of the continents. The drift has already started. We need to think and evaluate this process. It requires observation of the foundations, which the continents are based on. It its essence a stone is immobile, it has not been made to be nomadic. Is a mountain in fact not but a huge stone frozen forever in time? Looking at a mountain we are facing mesmerizing eternity, which confronts us with ourselves and our nomadism. Now the stone has started to move, but within its own time and space. Immobility and nomadism are a dialectic duo. The very fabrics of what we are made of and what surrounds us is full of paradox. We pick up stones and scatter them around the world. This gesture, repeated countless times, moves the territories. The exhibition is built up of multi-media resources on the topic of survival in extreme conditions. Numerous drawings and objects support the environal nature of the exhibition and make us partakers.

DIDIER MAHIEU has had numerous solo exhibitions all over the world, including “The precious power of stones”, MAMAC, Nice, The Brigitinnes - Le Jardin en Verre Brussels, Sketch London (film), Gembloux - Scaphandre, Soul-Bruges, the Economist Plaza for the Contemporary Arts Society London, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the PMMK in Ostend, the Chelsea Art Museum in New York, l’embarcadere Monceau les Mines France and the Museum of Guangdong in China.

Group exhibitions include the triennial Beaufort in 2003, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main, the Grand Palais in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen.
His works are held in numerous private collections and in Belgian and international public collections such as the collection of the National Bank of Belgium, the collection of the French Community and the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Mons, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille, the Maritime Museum of Istanbul and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Varna (Bulgaria). 6 films have been made about the work of the artist. Publications include: Les 500 chef d’oeuvres d’art belge Racine Brussels, Kunst in Belgie na1975 Antwerp, Triennale d’art contemporain sur mer Beaufort, Une Journee Ailleurs PMMK Ostende.