Curated by Hiromi Kurosawa, Chief Curator of 21st Century Museum, Double Silence presents a fluid navigation of space as a journey through the worlds of Borremans and Manders’ view of the museum and his works as a self-portrait within the building. We spoke with Hiromi Kurosawa on how the exhibition presents an intriguing, “intervention” between both artists’ works, and the importance of their traditional mediums reinstating the understanding of contemporary art today. Kurosawa first notes how the joint exhibition concept came to realisation.

“The first time I saw their work together was serendipitous. As they are represented by the same gallery, Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, one time I visited, Michael Borremans work was hung on the wall, and Mark Manders was on the floor as they were getting ready for installation, and it seemed to click. I then realised it was extremely interesting and intriguing, and it wasn’t just because we had two super famous artists in the same frame, it was because its Mark Manders’ private world, building a self-portrait, and then you had this intervention — by Michael Borremans. That’s why it was so interesting. It wasn’t a violent intervention, it was an intervention of a level of a concept — and it was also incredibly beautiful. That’s when I started thinking that perhaps you could do a double, two-person show, together.”

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Double Silence is a culmination of the historical and contextual longevity of art. Kurosawa explains,

“We have recently been talking about (Japanese daimyo) Oda Nobunaga from the Sengoku era. Still, after 400 years, we are looking for something new from that era. [In relation to Double Silence with Michaël Borremans and Mark Manders], we are trying not to excavate something old, but to evoke something new to you. It is not about discovering unknown facts, but really about trying bring things to attention through a physical experience.”

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