Clara Spilliaert at Gaasbeek Castle, Lennik (BE)

Gaasbeek Castle welcomes artist Clara Spilliaert (b. 1993, Tokyo) for her first solo museum exhibition, Soil Mate. She intertwines a new creation and a selection of existing work with the unique character of this place and its rich history.

 

Spilliaert's artistic practice connects personal experiences with historical reflection and natural elements. Her move from Japan to Belgium resulted in thousands of intimate diary drawings, which form the seed of her layered visual language. Today, she works with a wide range of media: from drawings and murals to ceramic sculptures and site-specific installations. In the castle, you will discover this variety of creations that Spilliaert has made over the past ten years; as subtle interventions, they enter into a dialogue with the castle halls and their meanings.

 

New creation
For this exhibition, Clara Spilliaert creates Soil Mate: a stop-motion short film in which a picnic blanket serves as a stage. Starting from her personal picnic experience in the parterre garden of the castle, she focuses on what takes place beneath the surface. We descend into a world with its own rhythm, largely independent of human presence. The film unfolds the story of an imaginary patch of land, month after month, in twelve repeating scenes. In this cyclical journey, above- and below-ground processes become intertwined. Via tunnels and food chains, you are ultimately led back to your own body.

Spilliaert explores the tension between private and public, between control and rebellion, between surface and depth.

 

Image: detail of Clara Spilliaert, Soil Mate, 2026

 

The exhibition will be on view 26 june - 15 november 2026.

More info HERE.