Franz West's 'Double Squint' at Almine Rech Brussels

Franz West's first solo exhibition in Brussels, 'Double Squint,' at Galerie Almine Rech from March 26 to May 22, 2010, occupied the entire first floor of the gallery. The gallery itself had pre-opened in October 2008 with an Anselm Reyle exhibition during the renovation of a former garage, operated from a neighboring house for a season, and reopened a year later. It became the largest gallery space in Brussels. The exhibition's first room, nearly dark, served as an antechamber featuring a large floor lamp, a double table (Working Table in Aspic) with a colorful painted top, a divan, and a painting made in collaboration with Rudolf Polanszki. The main room displayed West's diverse works: large plaster and papier-mâché sculptures inspired by his early Passtücke (1974), originally designed to be manipulated or worn, now enlarged to monumental or spatial installations. These stood vertically on pedestals, alongside two monochrome green and blue 'snakes' slithering on the floor and an epic pink flamingo. Two plaster chairs from the Moon Project series and two with colorful translucent inflatable cushions completed the sculptural ensemble. Further rooms featured six 'figurative' canvases combining painting and collage, revisiting his work more narratively, depicting Passtücke being manipulated by figures using his furniture. The exhibition concentrated West's sculptural concerns with form, material, transparency, opacity, and scale in relation to space and the human body.