The second edition of Sculptura Festival in Brussels opens at Gare Maritime, Tour & Taxis site, 11 Rue Picard Brussels, 1000 Belgium on Friday, the 19th of January until the 10th of March and will focus on the theme of Art Moves, Art Connects.
On the occasion of the Belgian presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2024, the festival has been recognized as an official cultural activity and will put the spotlight on the global migration issue, realising sculpture placements in various sites, including the Pixel Museum, the Migration Museum in Molenbeek, and The Dominican hotel.
The artist will present her work “Wooden Boat with Seven People” (2011), where she used an authentic wooden boat that was transporting migrants from Turkey to Greece. She collected the abandoned boat amongst others since 2003 from the shores of the Greek islands. Inside the boat are seated seven sculptures of human figures made of mild steel, leaning forward in silence. They convey feelings of expectation, vulnerability and resignation, sharing their difficult destiny – witness to the unending hardships felt in their fight for survival throughout history. By memorialising their transience, Lemos transforms these figures into monuments of dignity representative of the whole of humanity.
The sculpture was firstly presented in the final part of her exhibition trilogy ‘Navigating in the Dark’ in 2011, that took place inside the Crypt of St Pancras Parish Church in central London. The artwork symbolises the universal struggle and suffering of millions of uprooted migrants around the world.
From 2017 until 2021, it was installed at Spitalfields Market in London, a place known for its rich migration history.
