Re-Belle in the Grote Kerk Breda

Re-Belle – the power of color
With 'Re-Belle', visual artist Maria Roosen adds colorful, contemporary accents to the monumental interior of the Grote Kerk Breda.

Colorful accents
For the observant visitor, they are still visible in the light, almost serene Grote Kerk Breda: fragments of the deep colors that once decorated the rich interior. Almost five centuries ago they disappeared under a white layer of limescale when the church fell into Protestant hands after the turbulent Eighty Years' War. Now, from April 14, internationally known artist Maria Roosen will bring back the power of color with her work during the solo presentation 'Re-Belle'.

Tools for feelings
Maria Roosen calls her sculptures, watercolors and drawings 'Tools for feelings': tools to express feelings. These feelings are recognizable to everyone and are evoked by essential human experiences: the miracle of fertility, birth and life, the color and power of growth and blossoming, the energy of love and encounter, but also the process of mourning and loss.

Recurring motifs in her work include bunches of berries, milk jugs, building blocks, necklaces and rosaries, ladders and breasts. She likes to work with glass, a material that naturally has a certain fluidity and transparency. But she also uses wood, textiles and other materials. Her work is poetic, often refers with a wink to the everyday, but also rises above it. In this way she connects various associations and emotions - apparently light-hearted but always with a deeper layer - to her work.

Re-Belle in the Grote Kerk
BredaWith Re-Belle, Roosen responds with her poetic, powerful and rebellious works to the monumental space of the church and the special stories and symbolism that have been present in the Grote Kerk Breda for centuries. She brings the power of color back into the monument.

For example, in her installation 'Fruits of Love' in the Prinsenkapel - above the tomb of the Nassaus, the ancestors of our royal family - she combines colored glassware with fresh pomegranates and lemons that discolour and shrivel over time and thus emphasize the transience of life. Show life.

She also presents 'Shelter 2', an installation in which you can take shelter as in a Babushka. A place to retreat for a while, for peace and reflection. This chapel for one person is burned black on the outside and made of unpainted wood on the inside; warm, natural and protective.

In the solo presentation, this 'Shelter 2' forms a duo with 'Turn Magdalena Turn'; a same kind of cocoon with bands of color and milled lines that wave down along the 'body', referring to how Mary Magdalene, the woman who was one of Jesus' disciples and perhaps also his lover and benefactor, is often depicted: with long , loose hair. The contrast between the two sculptures forms a beautiful contrast between mourning, focused inward, and hope, focused on the outside world.Themes that have also played a role in the history of the Grote Kerk Breda for centuries.