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Hotel Aubecq’s stones are travelling!

Don't miss these 3 exhibitions!

The Hotel Aubecq was built by Victor Horta on the avenue Louise in 1899. Before the building was demolished in 1950, the entire façade was dismantled. 

Saved in this way, about 600 stones embarked on a long eventful journey. 

Since 2001, they belong to the Brussels Capital Region and are enjoying a new lease of life as works of art in their own right. They travel and become ambassadors for our history, also serving as a starting point for a discussion about heritage and how it has been preserved over the ages.

After a stopover at BOZAR for the exhibition “Victor Horta and the Grammar of Art Nouveau”, which allowed visitors to discover the architect from different perspectives through the expert eyes of numerous scientists, you can discover four Aubecq stones this year at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, which was also built by Victor Horta. 

→ As part of the exhibition “Portrait d’amis #2”,

the artist Rémy Hans is presenting an in situ work in the Horta atrium. Rémy Hans presents his creative process, inspired by the architect’s, documented in the exhibition by plaster casts from that period, kept in the Horta Museum. These plaster casts make it possible to visualise the size of the stone in three dimensions and ensure an exact execution of the design.

→ The exhibition “ART NOUVEAU, art for everyone?”

also presents an installation devoted to the fate of the Aubecq stones. Their history is recounted, while at the same time raising the question of their current use. New street furniture? Through a participatory process, everyone is invited to imagine a public space that could ingeniously integrate this nineteenth-century heritage into contemporary construction. 

→ Lastly, a stone can also be admired at LAB·AN x Hotel van Eetvelde,

which will remain open throughout 2024. One of the exhibitions on show there is “Aubecq: Fragments”, which allows us to discover the fabulous history of the Hotel Aubecq through a film made by 450ppm and Les Visites de Mon Voisin, which ends with the question “What now?”. What should we do with the Aubecq stones today? The public is invited to answer this question via the online questionnaire on https://aubecq.eu/

Pierre de la façade Aubecq
Mathias Nouel © urban.brussels