Expo ‘Stille Levens’ goes in search of stories and lives behind the still life

Koen Broucke, curator and Ostend resident, found inspiration for this in the art of Léon Spilliaert and the many shell shops Ostend once had. Based on forty artists, the exhibition outlines how the genre of still life defied time. Koen Broucke: “It is not one dialogue, it is full of dialogues. There are dialogues between the artworks and the collections, there are dialogues between the artists themselves and there are dialogues between the themes, the different subgenres between the still life.”

“Those forty-one artists who have a range of what contemporary artist is today. What I didn’t put in the exhibition is video. Because I wanted to keep the exhibition quiet. I didn’t want any interfering noises. The only sound that could be allowed is the sea. But we only have to open the window for that. Then we hear the sea.”

Stille Leven runs until May 21 in the Venetian Galleries in Ostend.