< Maarten Vanden Eynde
Exhumer le futur, retrospective exhibition
Maarten Vanden Eynde
Jun 10, 2022 - Oct 30, 2022
La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse (France)
After the exhibition at the Mu.ZEE in Ostend in 2021, Exhumer le futur (Digging up the Future) at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse is the second exhibition of Maarten Vanden Eynde's work, based on the book of the same name that contextualizes his work and retraces 20 years of persevering research, still active. Through a close observation of the industrial boom and increasing globalization, Maarten Vanden Eynde confronts the idea of progress with the depletion of the earth’s resources. What are we leaving to the future?

For the Mulhouse exhibition, a selection of catalogued works is organized around the issue of industrialization, production processes and the transformation of raw materials and products.

Maarten Vanden Eynde has also created a new piece for the exhibition, Fat Man 3D, a literal reference to the code name of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. The work links together three countries in the artist’s personal history: the Congo, which supplies raw materials such as cotton and uranium; France, in particular the Mulhouse industries which manufacture thread from cotton fiber; and Belgium, which transforms cotton thread into exceptional lacework. All of these come together in the form of an explosive installation suspended in the art center’s entry hall.


Curators: Katerina Gregos et Sandrine Wymann
Images by David Betzinger