Wim Opbrouck is well known as an actor, singer, presenter and playful figure. However, fewer people are familiar with his visual work. For the first time in thirty years, he is revealing his work at the Dr. Guislain Museum. Like Opbrouck himself, the exhibition does not limit itself to one aspect of life: it offers too many possibilities for that. Consequently, Open Heart takes the form of a triptych, consisting of the exhibition itself, Drawing Class and Whale.
© Damon De Backer
Exhibition
When someone is drawing, the power of their imagination knows no limits. Although works on paper are often considered to be unfinished or intended as preliminary sketches, Opbrouck believes that that is precisely their strength. In a drawing, you feel the power of thought and you see literally what the hand produces. Just a few lines evoke a world, and it is up to the viewer to flesh it out. In Opbrouck’s world, imagination has free rein.
The Drawing Class
The Drawing Class is all about drawing itself: drawing as a democratic process that does not require training or expensive materials. The Drawing Class is led by a facilitator who ‘draws out’ the students, showing them the way, to the rhythm of a reader who sets the tempo of each drawing. The activities are filmed from above and projected into the space. In this way, visitors are ‘drawn into’ the drawing process – and hopefully stimulated to pick up a pencil themselves. Guided by curiosity and wonder, Opbrouck encourages people to draw.
Whale
Open Heart offers a glimpse into the world of Opbrouck’s drawings, but also holds space for a whale that has washed up in the inner courtyard of the Dr Guislain Museum (thanks to the support of several companies, especially Isomo and Zephyr). The whale is a symbol of human suffering. The monarch of the seas, the giant creature with no natural predators ultimately turns out to be a vulnerable lost soul.
Big thanks to our sponsors: Isomo, Zephyr, Te Gek!?, Monument group, Hanssens Hout NV, Die Keure, Boss Paints