Hans Op de Beeck - The Quiet Parade

These mystical figures and frozen moments are part of the world created by Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck (b. 1969) at Amos Rex.

The Quiet Parade is a sculptural mindscape that includes works from 2015–2022 as well as a soundscape composed for the exhibition. The artist invites us to wander in an enigmatic park depicting different stages of life. There is no single correct path or a locked-in way of interpretation. Instead, everyone can approach the works from their own experience. This grey landscape, as if covered by ash, leads us to slow down and reflect inward – to focus on the present moment.

Op de Beeck’s art depicts life, it’s transience and beauty, and on other hand its tragicomedy. The artist, who moves fluidly between various media, says that he navigates somewhere between baroque and minimalist language, spiced with supermarket kitsch aesthetics. Time and memento mori (‘remember that you [have to] die’) also serve as essential themes in works depicting an oversized piece of cake and still lifes, in which the artist stretches familiar proportions and hence sprains the spatial and bodily experience of the viewer. The works are like scenes from the reality, yet full of surreal possibilities of a dream world where even a tiny blackberry can swell into a giant one. The artist’s sculptures are linked to the classical sculpture tradition and consists of echoes from the real world. They do not depict reality, but rather they are interpretations of it.