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The BPS22 Museum of Art in Charleroi, Hainaut Province, is getting ready to welcome the second event in the first monographic museum exhibition of the Brognon Rollin artistic duo from October 09th, 2021 to January 09th, 2022. Co-produced with the MAC VAL in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, this exhibition represents a perspective of their work from the past 15 years. It includes exclusive new creations such as Yamina, the longest neon lifeline they have ever produced. This perspective underlines the uniqueness of their definitive world and their consistent approach.

Born respectively in 1978 and 1980 in Messancy (Belgium) and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin have spent almost 15 years creating multifaceted work, guided by great conceptual and ethical demands. This is reflected in their first large-scale museum exhibition, shown internationally in two events: the first at the MAC VAL in France in 2020, and now in Belgium.

Under the title L’avant-dernière version de la réalité, borrowed from the writer Luis Borges, they develop a recurring question: does reality exist outside of its representations? And more specifically, what does this mean about its time and perception? Its relativity? Its spatial dimensions? How can we shape the experience of time passing? Or that of anticipation or suspense?

In a selection of approximately 40 works, including several new productions at each event (such as Yamina, at 27 metres the longest neon lifeline the two artists have ever created and produced especially for the BPS22), the exhibition traces the main phases of the pair’s artistic journey. Consequently a thread of recurring issues weaves its way between the different works, giving the exhibition its overwhelming consistency.

“The venue of the BPS22 being different from the MAC VAL, the scenography of the exhibition has been rethought offering the implementation of a real path in space and allowing the pieces of art to dialogue with each other“, explains David Brognon. This is further emphasised by the use of ambitious staging: greyish, inconclusive hues envelope the walls and floor, while perfectly adjusted circles of light pick out the works and frames within a hushed atmosphere, conducive to meditation and reflection. With this powerful staging, the artists have imagined the exhibition as a global installation, inviting visitors to perceive it as a whole.

“The exhibition is more immersive like “Yamina” which allows visitors to dive into the palm of this hand, and thus offer a fairly direct relationship with the history of these men and women married by force, “concludes the designer.

ABOUT BROGNON ROLLIN
For almost 15 years, the Brognon Rollin duo have created multifaceted work, with an almost obsessive obstinacy that places humanity at the centre of all their artistic images. Sharp observers of some of society’s actions, the artists create works that fall within the history of minimalist art and express great sensitivity in their design and the context of their creations.

Great sensitivity being a twofold sensitivity. This is the advantage of a well-balanced duo. ‘We have to agree 100% that a piece should be shown publicly. This pact means that our production is rather slow, but it does mean that it’s fair. Because we don’t approach an issue in the same way, when we do agree about the purpose, that means the piece is finished.’ (Stéphanie Rollin); ‘We have two different perceptions on the same situation, but we both want the same thing, we want to process it in the same way. So every piece is an accurate representation of what she feels and what I feel.’ (David Brognon).