Precious moments: Enghien contemporary art biennial invites visitors to open their eyes to life’s treasures

Every two years, the contemporary art biennale Miroirs invites art and heritage lovers to reflect on the beauty of the world around them via the prism of the enchanting setting of Enghien park.

Within this cloistered yet open-to the-public domain, 14 Belgian and international contemporary artists have created installations for the fifth edition Précieux that are inspired by the surrounding nature and architecture of the 182-hectare park.

The art trail that visitors can freely wander is curated by Myriam Louyest and Christophe Veys. Their choice of theme is an appeal to appreciate the fleeting moments that enrich human life. These manifestations are spread around the grounds and in nearby heritage sites of the medieval town.

In the estate’s former stable block, a substantial early 18th-century structure, Brussels artist Camille Dufour has suspended cones of printed paper in rows that drift gently to create a moving symphony (pictured). Après nous le deluge evokes the fragility of life by illustrating animal species and vegetation that are at risk of extinction. To create the print, she applied ink just once so that as the impressions ran, the colour faded to symbolise the gradual disappearance of the ecosystem. For the biennale, the installation has become a participative work with Dufour collaborating with Rafaël Klepfisch to distribute reproductions of fragments of the engraving in the letterboxes of local residents. Their reactions and responses and will form the basis of a future project.

Beyond the spiralling black-and-white prints, Lebanese-Belgian artist Marie Zolamian presents a giant fresco, Symbiocène, first created for the C-Mine industrial site in Genk. Drawing on her Middle Eastern roots, she presents a colourful landscape within the format of a wall carpet, a riot of colour and exotic birds and vegetation. The mural is offset by a collection of miniature fragment paintings (pictured, main image), that feature humans at the point of falling asleep; the moment that saintly figures draw their final breath. Her artistry is a revelation; the sentiment evoked is one of the fragility and transience of human life.

The artist has also painted a work that showcases one of Wallonia’s exceptional heritage treasures, the Maître de la Virgo inter Virgines by an anonymous Dutch Renaissance artist. She depicts a fragment of tissue from the masterpiece, a delicately rendered sculptural recreation of the material with its intricate folds and shadows. Both works are on show in Maison Jonathas in nearby Rue Montgomery.

Below the old stables, lie crypts that serve as a darkened auditorium for a collection of installations. French video artist Jean-Baptiste Perret specialises in films that document rural life and the people that habit them: meditations on human existence and the relationship with the surrounding Massif central landscape. In La Trappe (pictured), he follows a hunter who reveals his own vulnerabilities in scenes that show the delicate balance between Man and nature. The sober and patchwork countryside - covered in a blanket of snow - resembles a Breughel painting.

Flemish artist Isabel Fredeus (pictured) pursues works that are on the border of art and science. Specifically for the underground antechamber, she collaborated with VUB microbiologist Elise Elsacker for this work-in-progress: sculptures in wood to which mycelium is added and then placed in glass containers. As the days pass, fungal mushrooms appear and mutate.

While observing the illuminated scene, the sound of birds reinforces the woodland atmosphere. Its source lies in a cramped humid space further below. Crouching down, the sonar installation of extinct songbirds by French artist Roman Moriceau is once again a reminder of the preciousness of life.

Three installations are located in the splendid Saint-Nicolas de Myre church that presides over the town square close to the park entrance. They include Laurence Dervaux’s striking and symbolic work: suspended glass droplets in the nave filled with a red liquid that corresponds to the quantity of blood in the human body of adults and children. The vulnerability of life is just one of the conclusions that can be drawn from this collection of objects that radiate beauty in a setting that is filled with architectural and spiritual meaning.

Accessible only via a flight of stairs, Ismaïl Bahri presents a video of what appears to be a fixed image of a water droplet on the vein of a human forearm. Closer inspection reveals that it gently vibrates according to the beat of a heart.

Returning to the estate, the extensive park houses further treasures, such as Benoît Plateus’ geometric pattern painted onto the glass doors at the interior of the ancient chapel that forms an interesting dialogue with the interior decor. Further away, Swiss artist Simon Deppierraz has designed a game of balance and symmetry in the Pavillon des Sept Etoiles (the observatory). Stringere (pictured) consists of a collection of rocks that are attached tautly to each facade; highlighting the water-surrounded structure’s mirroring of the opening of the paths and alleys that englobe it.

In one of these hedge-lined passages, lies a wooden panel that is the result of a participative project involving park users. Lauriane Belin questioned people about their various habits and rituals when visiting the grounds, transforming some of these banalities into an engraved information board. The responses, capturing small moments in life, are poetic and meditative.

Biennale d’Enghien: Miroirs#5 Précieux
31 August to 15 September
14.00-18.00 (accompanied by a guide)
Avenue Princesse Eisabeth
Enghien (Hainaut province)
Free entrance

Photos: (main image) fragment painting by Marie Zolamian ©Sarah Crew; Camille Dufour ©Sarah Crew; Zolamian Marie  ©Orlando Maaike Grouwenberg; Maitre de la Virgo in virgines Deüploration; Isabel Fredeus ©Sarah Crew; Dervaux Laurence ©Leslie Artamonow; Ismail Bahri video 2011; Simon Deppierraz, Stringere ©Sarah Crew