Special edition on the first permanent sculpture by Jaume Plensa in Belgian public space
Acclaimed Spanish visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver Jaume Plensa is renowned for his ability to weave spirituality, corporeality, and collective memory into his sculptures and installations, using a wide range of materials. Many of his iconic sculptures can be found in public spaces, in some of the most evocative places in the world. The city of Leuven now joins this list with the acquisition by KU Leuven of The Four Elements, the first permanent sculpture by Jaume Plensa in Belgian public space.
The sculpture The Four Elements consists of two parts in bronze, located in two places, the gallery of the KU Leuven University Library and the newly created St-Raphaël Square. The first part, Fire, commemorates the resurrection of the University Library after the devastating fire of World War I. Water, Earth, Air, the second part, rises like a totem pole on a new urban site that is a meeting point for health care and medicine.
This collection of essays documents how the two parts of the sculpture and its two sites represent a broader trinity of interaction and togetherness: between the university and the city and its public spaces, between research and art, between the study of health (in this case the brain) and organizing care.
Ebook available in Open Access.
Read more about the sculpture The Four Elements by Jaume Plensa
A Proper Tribute
Urbain Vandeurzen
Knowledge and Art
Luc Sels
A Warm Welcome in Leuven
Mohamed Ridouani & Bert Cornillie
The Four Elements
Filip Abraham & Koenraad Debackere
Stéphane Symons in Conversation with Jaume Plensa
Eyes Wide Shut – One Theme, with a Dozen Associations around The Four Elements
Johan Wagemans
One Sedes Sapientiae, Two Locations, Four Elements
Mark Derez
Four Elements of Academic and Artistic Research
Erik Thys
The Four Elements
Mark Derez
A Skin of Language
Tom Van Imschoot
St. Raphaël’s Square
Rebecca Gysen & Karen Landuydt
Leuven: Art in Public Spaces
Stéfanie Lambrechts
Coda
Plensa and Contemporary KU Leuven: Four Elements, Three Narratives, Two Locations, One Sculpture
Geert Bouckaert
Biography Jaume Plensa
Selected Artworks Jaume Plensa
About the Authors
Colophon
Geert Bouckaert
Geert Bouckaert is professor emeritus at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute. He is past-president of the European Group for Public Administration, and of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.
Geert Bouckaert is professor at KU Leuven and Chair of the Committee for Contemporary Art.
Stéphane Symons
Stéphane Symons is Full Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Culture at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven.
Jaume Plensa
Johan Wagemans
Mark Derez
Mark Derez is archivaris aan het universiteitsarchief (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).
Erik Thys
Tom Van Imschoot
Rebecca Gysen
Karen Landuydt
Stéfanie Lambrechts
Geert Bouckaert
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