Expanding Grounds, co-curated by Valérie Delfosse and Laurence Dujardyn (SYBIL), brought together seminal works from the 1990s and 2000s by Francis Alÿs, Huma Bhabha, Imi Knoebel, Steven Parrino, Cindy Sherman, Frank Stella, Walter Swennen, Michel Tombroff, and Franz West.

The exhibition explored the notion of “ground” as both a physical and conceptual site: tradition, territory, history, and form. Through sculpture, painting, photography, and installation, these artists expanded and disrupted those foundations, opening space for contradiction, ambiguity, and transformation.

From Cindy Sherman’s iconic explorations of identity to Frank Stella’s dynamic constructions, from Huma Bhabha’s hybrid figures to Franz West’s participatory sculptures, Expanding Grounds traced how art at the turn of the millennium reconfigured the conditions of seeing, making, and inhabiting space.

In Twilight’s Gaze, a wooden figure is shown in different stages of burning, moving from a clear form to a fading silhouette. In the Threshold series, gold leaf takes the shape of a flame that seems to scorch the wood beneath it. The Feu la vie sculptures capture fire in crystal, appearing to melt while shining with inner light. Even in quieter works, traces of ash, light, and disappearance recall the presence of fire.

Together, these works reveal fire as a paradox: fragile yet eternal, consuming yet preserving. It is a force of memory and transformation, marking endings while opening space for new beginnings.

This intimate exhibition in my home gathered works by Fabrice Samyn in which fire is both subject and metaphor. Flames appear across paintings, sculptures, and objects — burning, glowing, or held in stillness — to evoke cycles of destruction and renewal.

In Twilight’s Gaze, a wooden figure is shown in different stages of burning, moving from a clear form to a fading silhouette. In the Threshold series, gold leaf takes the shape of a flame that seems to scorch the wood beneath it. The Feu la vie sculptures capture fire in crystal, appearing to melt while shining with inner light. Even in quieter works, traces of ash, light, and disappearance recall the presence of fire.

Together, these works reveal fire as a paradox: fragile yet eternal, consuming yet preserving. It is a force of memory and transformation, marking endings while opening space for new beginnings.