IN-SPIRATION
From February 8 to February 26 we present IN-SPIRATION by Caspar Berger. At the heart of this exhibition is the work CARVED TIME Series of Contemporary Prayer Nuts, previously shown at PAN Amsterdam and now presented in Antwerp.
The exhibition is accompanied by a lecture series hosted at Samenloop, located in the Maagdenhuis on Lange Gasthuisstraat 33 in Antwerp.
Samenloop is a project disguised as a restaurant. With applicants for international protection (asylum seekers and refugees), foreign-language newcomers and students who combine learning and working, Samenloop brings together renowned chefs to create a high-profile restaurant of gastronomic quality. Current expert guidance Chef is Wouter Keersmaekers van restaurant ‘De Schone van Boskoop’.
The dates of the lectures at Samenloop in the Maagdenhuis are 8, 15, and 22 February, you are more than welcome to register for all three. At 1:30 PM the doors are open, the lectures start at 2:00 PM at Samenloop.
Lecture programme
LOCATION Samenloop – Lange Gasthuisstraat 33, Antwerp
DOORS 1:30 PM · START 2:00 PM
8 February
MODERATOR | NICKY AERTS – Presenter of the cultural program Pompidou on Klara.
SPEAKER | BERT DE VROEY – Journalist for the VRT News Service.
SPEAKER | YASMIEN NACIRI – Entrepreneur, marketer, speaker, and author in various media.
15 February
MODERATOR | GIE GORIS – Freelance journalist and former editor-in-chief of MO* Magazine.
SPEAKER | CHRIS BRYSSINCKX – Former director of GATAM vzw, co-founder of ReAntwerp and Samenloop.
SPEAKER | JAN VANHEUKELOM – Activist, former head of Belgian development cooperation and UN advisor.
22 February
MODERATOR | PHILIP HEYLEN – Chief International Relations & Corporate Affairs Officer at Ackermans & van Haaren and Honorary Alderman of the city of Antwerp.
SPEAKER | MIRJAM HOIJTINK – Cultural historian, researcher, research fellow at the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam (UvA).
SPEAKER | EMILE VAN BINNEBEKE – Curator of sculpture at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.
After each lecture, we walk together to NQ Gallery for an exclusive exhibition visit, with a drink and a light bite by Samenloop under the supervision of chef Wouter Keersmaekers
Highlight of the exhibition In-spiration is the work Carved Time, Series of contemporary prayer nuts
Carved Time Berlin, May 1, 1945 / Iwo Jima, February 3, 1945, boxwood,2025
The original idea for this series of contemporary prayer nuts stems from a simple, yet urgent, point of view: that a single image — despite the noise, abundance and cynicism of our times — can still aid us with direction.
Scattered throughout museum and private art collections around the world, one might encounter fascinating prayer nuts, made in the early sixteenth century: small balls carved from boxwood, about the size of a golf ball. When opened, they reveal meticulously carved scenes from the life and suffering of Christ: sculptural, almost cinematic and laden with symbolism. Images in its most concentrated form: small, precise and meaningful.
Inspired by these small historical objects and now realized in close collaboration between historical research, medical scanning, digital production and 5-axis ‘high-speed micro milling’ technology, Carved Time came to be: eight contemporary prayer nuts carved from boxwood.
The first step for realizing this project was to pass one original prayer nut from the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (object number BK-1981-1 Adam Dircksz’s workshop, Delft), through a CT scanner, thus obtaining the highest possible data. This digital scan was next processed to retain the original Gothic tracery, while the interior became completely redesigned.
These new Prayer nuts do not show religious scenes. They portray micro-sculptures of key moments in recent history. Here the focus lies not on the divine that takes center stage, but on the human dimension, vulnerability and conscience.
Carved Time shows us a reminder of sixteen turning points of our recent history. Iconic images, stuck in our minds forever, such as the Tank Man, the Napalm Girl, Abu Ghraib, the Falling Man or the murder of George Floyd. Or the iconic images at the end of the Second World War: Russian soldiers raising a flag over the Reichstag in Berlin, and US soldiers raising a flag on Iwo Jima. Moments when the world fell silent for a moment and had to be readjusted.
Carved Time revisits the centuries-old form of sixteenth-century prayer nuts, once a tool for Christian devotion, and places them at the heart of our contemporary visual culture. An invitation to let us reflect and slow down, to look closely and introspect; to act as a contemporary moral compass.
Besides Carved Time, more new works by Caspar Berger will be shown in the exhibition In-spiration.
Film about Carved Time, series of contemporary prayer nuts