Freek Wambacq’s work, which often draws its inspiration from chance encounters and wayward discoveries, investigates the nexus of sculpture, installation and architecture. While it can be seen in a critical relation to Minimalism and Arte Povera, it playfully undermines their cerebral rigour with a wry sense of humour.
Unlike Arte Povera, for instance, Wambacq’s practice does not confine itself to natural or poetic elements, but also includes everyday, at times ridiculous-looking objects. In actual fact, the artist’s often deceptively simple objects allow for numerous and far-ranging interpretations, for beneath their surface lies an entanglement of different histories, sociological commentaries and recurring architectural or art-historical references, which add multiple dimensions to the work’s intrinsic aesthetic qualities.
Wambecq’s simultaneously material and conceptually inflected practice thus establishes a critical link between the world of art and the world at large.