Koen Broucke, Manen en Laarzen

This exhibition is a collaboration between the Warande and the Taxandria Museum. Artist Koen Broucke (1965) works with the collection of the museum. 'Moons and Boots' is the result of research into the images and memorial of the battle of Tielenheide (1597) and especially the Battle of Turnhout (1789).

With his drawings, paintings and performances, Broucke has developed a distinctive style. Broucke's artistic practice makes historical or unreachable places vivid again. Broucke writes scenarios in which historical figures and fictional characters are brought to life. Reality and imagination, historical facts and fantasy become an interesting whole.

For this exhibition, Broucke walked over the old battlefields and spent days in libraries and archives. He established that there is a remarkable contradiction in the images of heavenly interventions such as a moon army, balloon sailing, spiritual intervention and the bitter reality of the battlefield. They are the same manipulative forces that hide behind the imaging and reporting of today's conflicts: the remote viewpoint of the Internet, the computer, drones, air fights, bombings, victims, torture, executions, the suffering and the reality on the battle field.

Taxandria Museum
Begijnenstraat 28
2300 Turnhout

Artists: Koen Broucke