Julien Delagrange
Human Preservation

September 18 — October 31, 2021

Verduyn Gallery
Heerbaan 10
Moregem, Belgium

Verduyn Gallery is pleased to present its first solo exhibition by Julien Delagrange, Human Preservation. The exhibition consists of a series of paintings, drawings, a site-specific installation, and a video artwork examining the vulnerability of our human nature in relation to the notion of freedom.

Freedom is inversely related to human preservation. One is torn between by the urge to do what the heart desires and the need for restraint to protect our fragile existence. An irony of life, an unsolvable issue or even a universal law we have been confronted with in a ruthless manner. The more fully we live, the greater the uncertainty of our lives.

Julien Delagrange (born in 1994 in Kortrijk, Belgium) resides and works in Harelbeke, Belgium. The contemporary artist, trained as an art historian, is occupied with topics inherently linked to life and art. Although the postmodern condition is built upon the end of the great stories, Delagrange acts on this contradistinction due to our inherently human urge for the great stories. In search of a new synthesis, recurring concepts throughout Delagrange’s oeuvre are anthropology, metaphysics, existentialism, transience, (post-)postmodernism, and contemporary art as the privileged activity to achieve this objective.

Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Ghent University, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation in Brussels and is the artistic director and editor in chief of CAI and CAI Gallery in Kortrijk. The Belgian artist has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Belgium the Netherlands, France, and Germany and features in national and international private collections. Earlier this year, Delagrange was invited as a judge for the renowned international award the Contemporary Award 2021.