M HKA Ensembles

Object, 40 x 35.5 x 27 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK5929_d1).

On view here are four maquettes based on four larger structures made by Jef Geys. These four structures were made – as part of a series of eighteen pieces – for the Sao Paulo Art Biennial in 1991. The artist Jef Geys made them in collaboration with architect Guy Mertens. Like the titles suggests, they are structures of existing buildings in Europe and South America. Resized to human scale and rid of their interior, they are reduced to merely shapes. The artist showed the works at the Biennial and consequently sent maquettes of these to the headquarters of European and South American football organizations, to be placed in their respective trophy cabinets during the period of this art festival. There was a six-pointed star on each structure, a shape with a loaded content: one use of the six-pointed star was as an identification label for concentration-camp prisoners in WWII. Geys painted these stars in the national colors of the involved countries. According to Geys, sports stadiums are ever more frequently used as super-prisons. For this reason he brought together architecture, football and history in his Biennial project.