The artist Richard Kenigsman, known internationally for his commitment to the Jewish community, will expose Thursday night to Saturday in the art gallery "Au fil du temps" located chaussée d'Alsemberg in Uccle.
Security measures will be taken by precaution, Michel Lussan-Loïtzanski said. Lussan-Loïtzanski is communication director for the exhibit entitled "Return to the future" and also director of the Association for Memory of the Shoah (AMS).
Surveillance will be especially present for the opening on Thursday evening. Lussan-Loïtzanski said this is a first in Belgium, having to secure an artistic event. Proof according to him of a notable development of anti-Semitism in Belgium, more than in most other European countries, he said.
The precautions taken for this exhibition are understandable, considering "the increase in anti-Semitic acts, medieval stigma such as Charles Michel’s caricature, and Belgium standing out in a study as the first western country in Europe where antisemitism is taking majority proportions and the fact that many acts are not penalized," Lussan-Loïtzanski said.
Yet Kenigsman treats primarily the Holocaust, which is far from more contemporary subjects plagued by controversy. For the exhibition "Return to the future", 14 monumental paintings completed in recent years will be exposed.
Born in 1945 in Belgium, the artist lives and works in Brussels. By expressing himself through painting, sculpture and sketching, he diverts previous images with irony, self-mockery and subversion, thus questioning the Jewish identity and traces of memory attached to it.
The Brussels Times
