Cool Paris

Peter Buggenhout (b. 1963, lives and works in Ghent) is developing a sculpture practice in which the construction of hybrid forms refers back to a powerful universe, creating the feeling of an active power vested in the object. The artist uses common materials, rejects from everyday life that he does not hesitate to put together in such a way as to endow them with a completely different dimension. To do so he very often adds a mixture of animal blood and resin to his sculptures which he then coats with dust. This amalgam with its dark, dirty texture gives the visitor the simultaneous sensation of a certain fragility and an evocative and disturbing power.

By using these coated industrial leftovers, the artist operates the other way round from the archaeologist: He artificially recreates the process of natural sedimentation, conferring a special aura on  these objects. The ritual he imbues into the materials of his sculptures can evoke the stages of decline and decay, and reinforces the vulnerability of each and every one of us. Operating as so many archaeological pointers to the future, the works of Peter Buggenhout remind us that objects circulate continually in various forms, according to different backgrounds and surroundings, in the continuum of life’s cycle of disappearance and reappearance.

Tentacular, seductive yet threatening, the impressive sculpture designed for the Palais de Tokyo extends into both the verticality and horizontality of space, responding to the four cardinal points. Between Sibyl and Cerberus, this invasive structure suspended above the grand staircase invites the visitor on a chaotic and chimerical journey. With this work entitled The Blind Leading the Blind [“If one blind man guides another, they will both fall into the ditch.” (Matthew 15: 14)], Peter Buggenhout highlights an infinite mutation of forms engendered by our present-day world.