Johan Muyle's Indian Studio at Centrale Brussels

The Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels presents 'Johan Muyle - Indian Studio', a synthesis of the artist's work from his travels in India and collaborations with Bollywood sign painters. Since 1995, Muyle has engaged with the Chennai-based Cine Banners Painters, whose traditional craft is threatened by digital printing. His assembly sculptures, influenced by Bruegel, Wiertz, and Ensor, form philosophical carnivals of apatheist vanities. Combining urban objects, electroluminescent mechanisms, sounds, and texts, these works create oxymorons through semantic shifts and critical anachronisms. The exhibition includes a public commission realized in Brussels with Tamil Nadu painters, 'I Promise You a Miracle' (2003), alongside recent mechanized drawings and motorized light sculptures. A monograph by Bernard Marcelis, 'Johan Muyle – Indian Studio (1995-)', published by Fonds Mercator, details the hybridizations and paradoxes. Another publication, 'J. Muyle – Heureusement que la pensée est muette. Écrits', with a preface by D. Païni (Le Gac Press), accompanies the show. The exhibition runs from November 7, 2013 to February 9, 2014, coinciding with the Europalia 2013-14 festival honoring India.