{"id":14311,"date":"2025-06-26T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T08:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/geen-onderdeel-van-een-categorie\/sculptural-ii-k-e-r-k\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T13:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T12:35:14","slug":"lamb-of-god-middelkerke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/news\/lamb-of-god-middelkerke\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamb of God \/ Self-Portrait 50, after Van Eyck in Middelkerke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When Nick Ervinck invited me to the <em>Sculptural II<\/em> exhibition, I didn&#8217;t have to hesitate for long. The location: a deconsecrated church. The proposal: the work <em><strong>Lamb of God \/ Self-Portrait 50, after Van Eyck.<\/strong><\/em>in the middle of the altar. People sometimes say that art should surprise, but in this case it was rather as if the work had already reserved its place.   <\/p>\n\n<p>Context is everything. This is a truth I learned earlier in Italy, where people drink an espresso as if they were celebrating mass. There I learned that rituals are important, even &#8211; and perhaps especially &#8211; when one no longer knows what they are for. They are a kind of coat rack for the soul.   <\/p>\n\n<p>And so I placed the Lamb of God on this altar. That sounds simpler than it was, because one does not carelessly place a lamb on an altar &#8211; especially if it symbolizes the sins of the world. The lamb looks at you, politely but not without judgment. To the left of the lamb, in a niche, a new work: Hands of God. Not a whole God, just a Hand &#8211; which is also quite reassuring in these times.    <\/p>\n\n<p>Beneath the lamb is written in Latin letters, <em>Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundi.<\/em> <em><strong>&#8220;Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.&#8221; <\/strong><\/em>A phrase that sounds like an echo from another century, and &#8211; oddly enough &#8211; comes in louder in this secularized environment than in a cathedral full of incense and Gregorian chant.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Lamb is without Mass, without choir, without incense, just a being looking questioningly. Can there still be a new beginning without first giving up something? Perhaps it lies in the willingness of personal sacrifice, the willingness to be vulnerable.  <\/p>\n\n<p>For that space &#8211; this opportunity &#8211; I thank Nick Ervinck and his team. They offered me an altar, and that&#8217;s a lot these days. <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Sculptural II &#8217;25 &#8211; <\/strong>Date: 29\/06\/2025 &#8211; 31\/08\/2025<br\/>with Willem Boel, Folkert De Jong, Nick Ervinck, Joke Raes, Anne Wenzel<br\/>Curator: Nick Ervinck<\/p>\n\n<p>Jonkvrouwe Gelaplein, Sint-Pieters-Kapelle (Middelkerke)<br\/>In collaboration with NQ Gallery, Antwerp<br\/>Opening: August 10, 2025, with the same artists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Nick Ervinck invited me to the Sculptural II exhibition, I didn&#8217;t have to hesitate for long. The location: a deconsecrated church. The proposal: the work Lamb of God \/ Self-Portrait 50, after Van Eyck.in the middle of the altar. People sometimes say that art should surprise, but in this case it was rather as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[117,209,211,212,213,214,215,216,217],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/caspar-berger-k.e.r.k.-lamb-of-god-self-portrait-50-after-van-eyck-2025-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14311"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14324,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions\/14324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casparberger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}