RE-BELLE '24
Exhibition
Widow 1, Maria Roosen 2017. Bruikleen Rabo Kunstcollectie. Detail foto: Peter Cox
With RE-BELLE, visual artist Maria Roosen brought colourful, contemporary accents to the Grote Kerk Breda. Her poetic, powerful and rebellious works responded to the monumental space from 14 April to 25 August 2024.
The remarkable stories and symbolism that have existed in the monument for centuries were highlighted through nine colourful works.
Colourful accents
To the observant visitor, they are still visible in the bright, almost serene Grote Kerk Breda: fragments of the deep colours that once adorned the lavish interior. Almost four centuries ago, they disappeared under a layer of white lime after the Eighty Years' War. Now, internationally renowned artist Maria Roosen brings the power of colour back into the monument during her solo presentation RE-BELLE.
Roosenkrans, Maria Roosen 1997. Nis in de Grote Kerk Breda. Foto: Aad Hoogendoorn
Tools for feelings
'Tools for feelings' is how Maria Roosen describes her sculptures, watercolours and drawings; means of expressing feelings. These feelings are recognisable for everyone and are evoked by fundamental human experiences: the miracle of fertility, birth and life, the colour and power of growth and flourishing, the energy of love and encounter, but also the process of mourning and loss. Recurring motifs in her work include bunches of berries, milk jugs, building blocks, necklaces and rosaries, ladders and breasts. She enjoys working with glass, a material that naturally has a certain fluidity and transparency. Glass is solidified energy, fragile and strong like life and love itself. But she also uses wood, textiles and other materials.
Glass is like 'solidified energy'; fragile and strong like life and love itself. Maria RoosenVisual artist
Shelter 2, Maria Roosen 2021. Foto: Bureau Branding
In her installation Fruits of Love in the Prinsenkapel – above the mausoleum of the Nassaus, the ancestors of the Dutch royal family – Roosen combines coloured glassware with fresh pomegranates and lemons that will discolour and shrivel over time, thus demonstrating the transience of life.
She also presents Shelter 2, an installation in which you can take refuge like in a Babushka. A place to withdraw briefly, for calm and contemplation. This chapel for one person is burnt black on the outside with unpainted wood on the inside; warm, natural and protective.
In the solo presentation, this Shelter 2 forms a duo with Turn Magdalene Turn!; a similar kind of cocoon with bands of colour and milled lines that undulate down the 'body', referring to how Mary Magdalene, the woman who was one of Jesus' disciples and perhaps also his lover and benefactor, is often depicted: with long, loosely hanging hair. The juxtaposition of the two sculptures forms a striking contrast between mourning, introspection, and hope, focused on the outside world. Themes that have also played a role in the history of the Grote Kerk Breda for centuries.
New perspectives
In 2024 the Grote Kerk Breda launched 'New perspectives', an annual solo presentation by a contemporary artist whose work enters into dialogue with the multi-layered stories of the church. 'RE-BELLE' is the first presentation in this series.
Visit RE-BELLE
The solo presentation RE-BELLE in the Grote Kerk Breda is on display until Sunday 25 August 2024 and admission is free.
About Maria Roosen
Maria Roosen studied at the Moller Instituut in Tilburg (1976-1981) and at the art academy in Arnhem (1981-1983). Work by Roosen has been shown at the Vleeshal (Middelburg), Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama, Japan), Singer Laren, Kunsthal KaDe (Amersfoort), Museum Dhondt Dhaenens (Deurle, Belgium), the Groninger Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent), Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar) and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, among other venues. Together with Marijke van Warmerdam and Marlene Dumas, Maria Roosen represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 1995.
During RE-BELLE at the Grote Kerk Breda, Roosen's work is also on display at the outdoor exhibition Lustwarande in Tilburg from 7 July to 6 October.
DISCOVER BREDA
Before or after your visit to the Grote Kerk Breda, be amazed by everything else the city has to offer and feel at home in the welcoming Breda. More info, including information on where to stay, can be found here.
RE-BELLE was made possible with the support of the Rabo Art Collection, Rabobank Breda Amerstreek and the Municipality of Breda:
