The Royal Museums of Art & History welcomes in its plaster cast workshop sculptor and PhD researcher Laurence Petrone as curator in residence.
Laurence Petrone has chosen 17 contemporary artists to participate in Works of Art & Copies, the exhibition (17-25 April 2025) and publication:
Sophie Whettnall, Myrthe van der Mark, Hilde & Erik Van Belleghem, Rune Tuerlinckx, Max Pinckers & Victoria Gonzalez-Figueras, Mariel M. Matute, Simon Masschelein, Anno Dijkstra, Damien De Lepeleire, Louise Delanghe, François de Coninck, Jeanna Criscitiello, Patrick Carpenter, Yannick Carlier, Karina Beumer.
Laurence Petrone selected them because of her appreciation of how the act of copying is at various degrees present in their artistic practice. The 17 artists are invited to a dialogue with the plaster cast workshop, its collection and the ancient craftsmanship preserved there.
In the publication, she submits the same set of questions to each artist as a companion for the exhibition.
The questions are:
What does this place evoke for you?
What place does the act of copying have in your practice?
What do you consider to be your necessity (desire) as an artist?
Is it possible to bear witness to political events as an artist?
What distinguishes an artistic object or gesture from other objects or gestures in the public space?
In Petrone's PhD research at the University of Antwerp and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the question whether there is such a thing as form thinking that enables witnessing from the arts is of key importance.
