Marcel Van Maele - Caged white

Marcel van Maele (Bruges 1931-Antwerp 2009) was a non-conformist and rebellious writer, performer and visual artist. He opposed bourgeoisness and the established order, and saw art as a means to change consciousness. After his military service in Korea in the 1950s, he spent several years hitchhiking through almost thirty countries. During his wanderings he worked as a night watchman, woodcutter, cow guard, carpenter, grape picker and dock worker. In 1956 he made his debut as a poet with the collection Soetja and began working on what would become an extensive oeuvre. In the last decades of his life he went blind, but with the help of others he continued to write poems and create art objects.

Marcel van Maele has published novels, film and theatre scripts, poetry collections and bibliophile editions. A recurring theme in his work is the conflict between the absolute freedom of the individual and the pressure of society. In addition to his literary work, he made paintings, assemblages, sculptures and installations, in which word and image often come together in a humorous way. From the 1970s onwards, he also created unusual objects: objets trouvés that he combined with words that he made illegible in one way or another. For example, his Gebottelde Gedichten (Bottled Poems) (1972-2002) are rolled up in a well-sealed bottle and for Vakkundig Hermetisch (1973) he cast his poetry collection in a block of polyester. The objects often appeared as multiples in limited editions.