The Depardieu Gallery presents Bernard Dejonghe until April 2nd. This artist plays with matter, as if glass or stone were merely a sort of dough that he shapes into forms and objects according to his whim.
One might wonder about the why and how of these objects, their usefulness or their purpose? Many questions arise to understand their end. Man is eager to know why, to attribute a reason to what surrounds and perhaps transcends him. Bernard Dejonghe gives us an answer, a simple word: Beauty.
Indeed, this visual artist, ceramicist, and sculptor offers us works with ethereal, sleek lines. Glass becomes a chiseled and cut diamond. Stone is fired in the ceramicist’s kiln. The fusion turns it into a sculpture, and the artist transforms an ordinary stone into a work of art.
Areshima, we enter Bernard Dejonghe’s pantheon, using the word with caution, hastening to specify that this is a mythology. Glass forms: polished, matte, rounded, square, or rectangular, icebergs laid on a table or mirrors?
Ultimately, we find that it is a mass of the purest crystal. Is Bernard Dejonghe a sculptor, visual artist, or ceramicist? Again, just one word: Artist. We have two keys to understanding the work of Bernard Dejonghe: Beauty and Artist. Beauty leads us towards the absolute, and the Artist allows us, during our visit, to escape our daily confines.
We borrow from Raphael Monticelli one of his statements, which perfectly sums up this exhibition: “…..I speak not of what I see, but of the view I carry within me…..” The visitor should not look but feel, which is entirely different.
Thierry Jan
