廖 智 新
ZHIXIN ANGUS LIAO

The Crowns and the Chapel

ABBY Kortrijk commissioned me to make a work relating to contemporary art, the former monastery, and the local culture. I was conducting archival research on the topic, and on a tour of Trezoor Erfgoeddepot (heritage depot of southwestern Flanders), the Abby director told me about an ivory statue called Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Groeninge in the St. Michel church collection. I was left perplexed, struck by the mysteries surrounding this piece. In the heritage depot, I discovered subtle variations in statues bearing the same title, across photographs and paintings–Sometimes, the Lady wears a crown while the Child does not, and in other instances, it is the opposite, sometimes both wear crowns, and sometimes neither. I tried to make sense of these differences, but I could not come closer to any sort of explanation.

This statue of Our Lady emerged as both an enigma and a catalyst for understanding the Abby Kortijk and its history (both as Groeninghe Abbey and as a city museum). It serves as a repository of interactions between people and their material culture, oral traditions, and rituals.

The origins of these crowns remained elusive, except for the unambiguous attribution of a large crown to a local jeweler in 1952 (the year of coronation). Searching through archives of photographs, paintings, and other forms of documentation, for example, I found records of mysterious crowns in photos from 1862 and 1942. An unknown "second” crown appeared in a Nov 1952 letter, only deepening the enigma. The more I researched, the more things became less clear, but also richer and more complex. I realized that the creation of a crown for the image of Our Lady went beyond its physical manufacture, it also involved a rich symbolism marked by religious rituals, ceremonies, and the active and meaningful participation of the local community.

The nearby Neo-Gothic style Groeningekapel van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw, is a small devotional space where a copy of the statue of Our Lady was venerated until 2007. Fortunately, the building has been restored recently after being abandoned for years. Thought to be rooted in the personal religious needs and political and historical convictions of the 19th century; the chapel was built for private worship of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Groeninge. It’s not entirely clear when the chapel was constructed, but the city archives show that according to ‘reliable sources’ it was in 1832. I sought to capture and indirectly connect what is absent from historical records. To embody this connection, I created a metal structure based on Groeningekapel's hexagonal chapel-altar in the chancel of the abbey. I borrowed the original altarpiece from the Groeningekapel during their renovations and placed it in the metal structure along with the original ivory statue of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Groeninge, which is on loan from the St. Michael Church. The installation is a kind of coordinate point, where different histories, time periods, artworks, and artifacts converge.

Perhaps, after over two hundred years since Our Lady’s statue was transferred from Groeninge Abbey to St. Michael Church in 1803, my confusion will find clarity when the original is placed in its place of origin inside a “replica” of a chapel initially built to house its replica.

Special thanks to: ABBY Kortrijk museum, Stad Kortrijk--Trezoor, Sint-Michielskerk Kortrijk, Documentatie- en Onderzoekscentrum voor Religie, Cultuur en Samenleving, KADOC-KU Leuven (Archief Vlaamse jezuieten), KADOC-KU Leuven (Beeldarchief Vlaamse jezuieten), Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium - Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Demeyere J&A BVBA, The Artistic Heritage of the Jesuits in the Low Countries and ABBY heritage expert Bernard Pauwels.