English
How to express the emotions experienced by athletes? … ? Tangible tension is visible on their faces. The eyes are fixed on the finish line or at the bar … Bated breath …
Winning, the only thing that really matters … Emotions, excitement, tears of joy or of sadness, that’s what grabs the audience again and again when watching a sporting event. Which is good. Time and again sport offers hope. For anything is possible in every single new event. A continuous start, that is the main message of sport, no? Fair enough, but what does this have to do with art?
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that there is a certain relationship between the athlete and the artist!
When Wilfried Meert suggested I should create the trophy for the 2011 Memorial Van Damme, I devoured dozens of video ‘s on athletes. With my mind set on how I could recreate those intense moments when the effort reaches its ultimate level. How to express the emotions experienced by athletes? … I have long looked at the performance of these champions during their sometimes brief careers. I became aware of their immense vulnerability. Strength and vulnerability. … I had found my starting point. Now I only had to create my athlete!
One day, my character was formed.
From the blue stone, the athlete, with taut muscles, is ready to start for a race against time, alone by himself …
Francis Mean (http://www.mean.be/)
The international career of the Belgian artist Francis Mean, born in Liège, but a resident of Leuven for some time now, starts in 1980 in the gallery Weber in Geneva. Since then galleries across Europe and the United States have exhibited his works.
You can find his bronze statues at ALTER EGO Art Gallery, Vlamingstraat 88, 8000 Brugge, www.alteregoartgallery.be (opening times of the gallery: every Friday to Monday from 11.00 to 12.30am and from 2.00 to 6.30pm).
Because of the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme, the gallery presents a special series of exclusive sculptures, designed by Francis Mean, on the theme of "athletics". This exhibition will run from 19 September to 31 October 2011.