Encounter with Michaël Borremans

The Market Hall and Central Squares in Ghent (a project in collaboration with Marie-José Van Hee architecten) incorporates an artwork by Michaël Borremans (b. 1963), which he donated to his hometown. In 2014, the artist applied the painting The Virgin to the Clock Tower near the Market Hall. The painting shows a black-haired girl, dressed in black, against a dark background. There are piercing rays of light coming from her eyes as she gazes sideways - whether or not she gazes to the Market Hall, the artist leaves uncertain.

The idea for the artistic intervention arose from the fact that the artist Albrecht Dürer once walked past this spot. In April 1521, he stayed in Gasthof Den Rooden Hoed and walked from there towards Saint Bavo’s cathedral, where he visited The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. On this route, Borremans realised a work of art almost in room format. The work does not want to have a monumental presence, but rather be a visual stimulus in this special historical context.