Chris Burden

Op 30 mei 2009 creëert de Amerikaanse kunstenaar Chris Burden in het Middelheimmuseum - publiek - een van zijn meest spectaculaire kunstwerken. Circa 60 stalen balken worden door middel van een hijskraan één voor één tot op 40 meter hoogte gehesen, en vervolgens vertikaal in een bassin van beton gedropt. Op die manier gebruikt hij toeval en zwaartekracht om zijn werk te maken. Dus hoewel Beam Drop eerder al gerealiseerd werd in New York (1984) en Brazilië (2008), is het resultaat toch absoluut onvoorspelbaar.

Met de installatie van Beam Drop Antwerp geeft Burden het startschot voor zijn solotentoonstelling, waar verder ook sculpturen en video's van de kunstenaar te zien zullen zijn. De geselecteerde werken geven een goed zicht op Burdens indrukwekkende carrière als beeldhouwer en performancekunstenaar.

American artist Chris Burden will display a number of sculptures and installations at the Middelheim Museum summer exhibition this year. He will furthermore perform the spectacular live installation of Beam Drop Antwerp - in which steel beams will be dropped into concrete from a height of 35 metres - for the general public in the sculpture park on 30 May. The gigantic effect of gravity, applied to these massive construction materials, is as natural to the spectator as the hand of the artist making an abstract impressionist painting. The installation is open to the public from 10 am to 8 pm on 30th May.

Chris Burden (1946, Boston , Massachusetts ) can without exaggeration be regarded as a key player in contemporary art. His performances in the 1970s redefined the possibilities of the medium; the sculptures and installations he made in later years opened up new horizons of what is physically possible in the visual arts.

The Middelheim Museum will also display an entirely different application of the raw material steel. Chris Burden will display a selection of his bridges in the Braem Pavilion and Middelheim Castle . These scale models of special bridges from around the world ( Victoria Falls Bridge , Tower Bridge in London , Antique Bridge , Indo-China Bridge , etc.) are made entirely of Meccano and its American counterpart, Erector. As pure as they look from the outside, they are ingeniously constructed on the inside. The very limited number of different basic pieces of the Meccano sets necessitates a great creative feat to exactly replicate the existing bridges - often miracles of ingenuity themselves. The result is near-classic sculptures that add a whole new meaning to the role of the sculptor. In addition, five video installations will help situate these sculptures in the context of the artist's oeuvre.