Tranches de vie

With “Tranches de vie” Sofie Lachaert & Luc d’Hanis bring the site of Hornu into the museum, a complete street with houses, a scenography as a ‘work’ on itself.

For the artist duo, Sofie Lachaert and Luc d’Hanis, life and work are inextricably intertwined.

They have been collaborating now for over 20 years on an intriguing oeuvre involving objects, furniture and situation-oriented installations whereby the boundaries between applied art, craft and design are both questioned and crossed. Each project is a joint project, each work the result of the symbiosis between these two designers.

With subtle interventions, mundane objects are enhanced with a new experience and a layer of meanings. Often conceptual, often with reference to fine art, each work can be interpreted at various depths, and can be viewed and scrutinised with various gazes. Meanings and functions are displaced, the senses are stimulated, unexpected beauty is exposed. With their work, ‘slld’ bring captivating moments of wonder, reflection and poetic experience into everyday life.

This is also true in “Tranches de vie”.

With this exhibition, the artist duo is bringing the environment into the museum, a street, ‘a terrace of workers’ houses referring to the Hornu Mine complex, inside the ‘Magasin aux Foins’ exhibition hall. The environment is, as it were, the true subject of the exhibition, the scenography and a work in itself. The visitor wanders around the street at dusk, the time of the day when silence falls. Here and there light shines in the terrace.

Curiosity and imagination are roused. The visitor looks through the window, notices unexpected images. Each viewing room displays an object or a series of objects with the required intimacy and its own, particular environment. These are subtle presentations whereby each work is placed in a specific context, and whereby the visitor is automatically compelled to view things more attentively. The other, more profound layers of meaning of the work are then revealed.