Nothing is as it seems at the Dr. Guislain Museum. Neither the buildings, people, histories, nor arts allow you to pass judgment on the truth. The new exhibition Untitled adds new elements to these illusions. It reaches out to the voiceless, the invisible, and the anonymous artists.

Today identity is a central theme in political and social debates. In search of their role in society, museums also question themselves. They are transforming into creative breeding grounds where different  interest groups are given a forum. But what about the voiceless? The unknown artists with oeuvres without context?

While classical art museums use categories, schools, and art movements to grasp the artistic reality, Untitled plays the game without all those rules.
Dr. Guislain Museum serves up the tried-and-true recipe of Fine Arts and Contemporary Art. A chronology of icons, historical works, religious scenes, and fascinating still lifes are awaiting. But nothing is what it seems. The division is a product of imagination, simply to underscore the unnatural division between players and outsiders.

Artists without an audience or network are outside the classic role-playing, but Dr. Guislain Museum captures the void within its walls. The fact that most works are untitled and/or their creators remain unknown does not mean they lack meaning. If art is supposed to speak for itself, and the life of an artist is of no importance in finding meaning in a work, then Untitled is an invitation to assess the value of these works for yourselves.

Let yourself be guided by the confusion inherent in this magical place where every prejudice dissolves into nothingness.

Fashion, as a cultural phenomenon is more than societal convention. Through one’s clothes and garments one can show the world an image of who one is, and how one wants to be perceived. As such, clothes have a deep symbolical meaning. Specifically, in the interspace between daily society and mad reality, they can help express our identity, form a second skin that protects us for the gaze of others, and at the same time communicate our deepest sense of self.

Over the past months, the first-year students of Maastricht Academy of Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Programme researched the topic of ‘Mirror Mirror’ for their exhibition ‘Veiled Wardrobe’, (un)dressing body and mind. They studied the exhibitions at Museum Dr. Guislain as well as Liège’s Trinkhall Museum to uncover different approaches to the topic of madness and fashion. The overarching topic of their reflective talks was the de-stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses. The surrealist movement posed as the catalyst of their exploration of the topic and tickled their imagination. Following this interdisciplinary approach, their ideas and concepts culminated in a collection of artistic transdisciplinary visual works.

21-04-2023 at 16:00-20:00 opening with performance