Peculiarities of artists’ work with historical buildings

Even white walls rising more than eight meters high, arched windows, a cold stone floor laid with black tiles featuring a geometric checkerboard pattern running in a narrow strip along the entire space, emphasizing its already elongated form. Belle Godshuis is a historic building located in Ypres in Belgium with a centuries-old history dating back to the late 13th century. There were housed an almshouse, later a hospital and a chapel.

Working with historical spaces is always like walking on a knife’s edge. By placing contemporary art in such buildings, artists inevitably confront the multilayered history of the site, which cannot be ignored. There is a risk that the art will submit to the space, granting it the leading role. On the one hand, artists must take the context into account, on the other, they must not allow the space to impose its own narrative.

The exhibition “Incredibly close and infinitely far away” by Mariia Gorbunova and Oleg Komarov at Belle Godshuis becomes an example of such balance. The artists’ task was to delicately maintain equilibrium between their own statement and the centuries-old historical context.

Colors, format and rhythm

Mariia Gorbunova works with themes of personal and collective memory, reflecting on the complexity of human experience. Within the framework of the project, her works are located in the right part of the hall at Belle Godshuis. In the left part are the works of Oleg Komarov, an artist who explores the fragility of memory, the perception of reality, and the vulnerability of the world as a whole.

The exhibition includes a series of abstract paintings of various formats. The dominant colors are red and black. The active red contrasts with the white walls and the dark floor, setting the rhythm of the space.

The red canvases are predominantly concentrated in the central part of the hall. Three elongated, almost “flowing” downward large works are rhythmically interspersed with six small-format canvases. Three small works are located on the floor and one of them is in the corner. Such placement deliberately disrupts the constructed symmetry, desacralizing the space.

Interaction

At the center of the exhibition is the black-and-white abstract work “Haven” (eng. “Port”), executed in oil and charcoal. It was created based on a randomly found archival photograph of the port in Ypres from 1936. The almost completely darkened image awakened in the artist a sense of the presence of the past: the smell of smoke, the heaviness of the air, echoes of wartime history.

Emotional intensity and internal tension distinguish the works presented as part of the project. The characteristics of the space enhance their perception.The characteristics of the space enhance their perception.

The artists enter into dialogue with history through personal experience, constructing it not only between themselves, but also between past and present, collective memory and individual experience. Therefore, the voice of the artists and the voice of the space ultimately sound in unison.

Author: Galina Bakinova
Date: 20.02.2026
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