Beeld van burgemeester Lode Craeybeckx

As the artist explained, “The head is open, to better convey the constantly working mind of Lode Craeybeckx. The sculpture has the powerful head of a socialist foreman with his politician’s fox eyes. The torso is made of plowshares (the worker) and at the same time the gown of a lawyer. The chest is open, because outside politics, Lode Craeybeckx is an extraordinarily artistic and frank man. We see the pump for pumping money in and out of the city treasury, and piano keys on the torso as a sign of eloquence. Down the leg is a tube, the outlet valve to flush away the many tensions. The chimney valve serves to sense which way the political wind is blowing. Since he founded the open-air museum, I thought it important to give him a place in his Middelheim forever.”

This artwork was created at the initiative of the artist, who wanted to give the founder of Middelheim Museum a statue in “his” museum. Lode Craeybeckx has thus stood at the entrance of the museum to welcome visitors since 1972. Who should we give a place of honor in the museum today, and who calls this art park “their” museum?

Belgian artist Vic Gentils started out as a painter, but from the late 1950s preferred sculpture. He assembled machine, furniture, and piano parts into a whole, which was sometimes cast in bronze. His style evolved from severe and rhythmic to playful and baroque. The associative process by which he created individual pieces is typical of his work. The use of color in many of his sculptures shows that he always remained a painter at heart.