“Re-Opening” is a group show with which Deweer Gallery opens its doors after a thorough renovation and rebuilding of the entire gallery. But it’s not only that. “Re-Opening” is also meant as our personal, artistic statement. It brings together some 25 young, emerging and established artists from the Deweer Gallery’s programme and from the international scene. The artists who haven’t been shown at Deweer Gallery so far – most of them haven’t even been shown in Belgium, are simply people we’ve discovered in recent years and who’s work fascinates us endlessly. They work in all media and they were invited to take part on the basis of instinctive, personal choice. Yet, as our work on the show was evolving, we noticed that our choices weren’t that random after all. It seemed as if some interests that have characterized the gallery’s history from the beginning, left a ‘mark’ on this show too. Once we had realized this aspect, we elaborated it and divided “Re-Opening” into three chapters. Each chapter takes up one of the three exhibition halls we now have at our disposal, and two of them are curated entities. Room II, the renovated hall downstairs, hosts the second chapter of the show: “New Thing”, a group show on contemporary sculpture. The use and the re-interpretation of the object is one of the dominant shifts within contemporary sculptural practice and mentality. In a way, the object – along with its associations - has become the primary material. In an attempt to describe an increasingly complex world, artists seem to try to reinvent sculptural language by making use of objects - clusters of materials, forms and their associations in their own right - which enable them to expand their vocabulary dramatically. While we can clearly see this evolution, we can only guess what the outcome of this will be. But it seems that the line between sculptural and other practices has been blurred, and that the prevailing form in sculpture has become essentially installational. This show addresses this evolution through a diverse range of mentalities and approaches, featuring works by Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Monica Bonvicini, Kasia Fudakowski, Stefaan Dheedene, Simon Dybbroe MØller, and Andy Wauman.