10 Treurenberg, 1000 Brussels
In the framework of the Art Brussels OFF, this unique collaboration, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen and Hungarian artist Sándor Körei explore the intricate relationships between nature, humanity, and survival. Vanmechelen’s work, rooted in biodiversity and the fusion of species, meets Körei’s thought-provoking interpretations of organic structures, forming a dialogue between art and life itself. Their creations challenge us to reflect on interdependence—how species, cultures, and ideas merge, evolve, and persist in an ever-changing world. Through sculpture, painting, and conceptual installations, the exhibition invites visitors to contemplate the delicate balance of survival, the necessity of cooperation, and the transformative power of connection.
Koen Vanmechelen
An internationally renowned artist, working across a multitude of disciplines, Koen Vanmechelen (1965) is one of the most versatile thinkers of these times. He is situated at the confluence of art, science, philosophy and community.
As an eternal migrant, he travels the world looking for answers to fundamental questions that touch on issues which are both timeless and acutely relevant today: identity, diversity, globalisation and human rights. He weaves those answers – always works in progress – into enigmatic artworks and projects. His quests and interdisciplinary projects invite others to work together and create an awareness and a movement of communities around the world. Together, they reflect on the global legacy of the human animal and explore the different ways we choose to live and evolve together.
In 2010, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hasselt and in 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Nica Hybrid Art Award (Linz) and Global Artist's Award (Venice). Vanmechelen has presented his work on almost every continent, in, amongst others, the Uffizi Gallery (Firenze), V&A Museum (London), ZKM (Karlsruhe) and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (Cuba). Besides making regular appearances at the Venice Biennale, his work has been shown at the Biennials of Moscow, Havana, Dakar and Poznan, at the Triennial of Guangzhou, at the World Expo Shanghai 2010, at Manifesta 9, and at dOCUMENTA (13). As a speaker in high demand, he was invited to address the World Economic Forum (2008) and various TED conferences.
Sándor Körei was born in Mór in 1995, he currently lives and works in Budapest. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2021 as a sculptor, in the same year he won the Tamás Vígh Prize, and in 2022, he was awarded the Derkovits Scholarship. His works revisit and reinterpret the still life genre from a contemporary sculptural perspective. Arranging freshly cut flowers and vases in a regular structure in glass containers, he not only recreates the strict composition of still life painting in sculptural space, but also reflects on the dual nature of floral still lives – behind the beauty of the vibrant, colorful plants, there is always the idea of withering, of passing away. In the interiors of the glass boxes, it is perhaps not the precisely worked out formal regularities that are the most powerful force, but the time itself to which the artist gives the works over at the moment of the sculpture’s closure. In 2023, Körei won the Káli-Art Inn Prize, therefore his work can be found in the open-air Káli-Art Park.