M Leuven.....

Later on, with a  bee in my bonnet, I decided  to visit the local museum, M Leuven, to see their contemporary collections.

I enjoy modern art while usually not understanding much of it. :) M Leuven was no exception. The Ugo Rondinone exhibit was a interesting mix of sculpture interspersed with stained glass.

The  multitudes of small bid sculptures made me feel like I was trespassing by getting  too close to the artwork - I read  later that that was the  idea. Needless to say  I tread softly until I was  able to leave the gallery.

What I encountered next were  wax sculptures that were eerily realistic and the accompanying masses of earth in each of the galleries tremendously imposing and severe.

 

A second and very different portion of this exhibition was an interesting  piece of semi interactive  art. All alone  I approached the gallery and peaked around the corner  to see  a massive concrete box suspended 2.5 feet above the floor. I  read the sign and had  to  smile, "You can crawl under the volume to view the artwork".  Well, ok. Why not? And what do  you know? Inside that intimidating structure  was papered  with childrens' drawings  of the sun. From  the outside the  volume gave the impression of  something very dark  and cold  but inside it was bright and "sunny". Interesting mix. :)

 

After  crawling out from under the concrete structure I found my way  across the rooftop balcony to the next gallery that housed a  collection by Ilse D'Hollander. I hadn't  seen anything from this particular artist previously but the simple combinations of varying color and  shapes  made  for  a  collection  that evoked calm.