Call for Justice

Date: 23.03.2018 - 24.06.2018

Temporary exhibition

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‘Call for Justice. Art and Law in the Burgundian Low Countries (1450 - 1650) is both the opening exhibition for the renewed museum and the culmination of the Mechelen city festival OP.RECHT.MECHELEN.

The exhibition explores the rich and fascinating relationship between art, the practice of law and the idea of justice. It focuses on the territories governed by the Great Council of Mechelen at its height from the mid-15th to the mid-17th century.

At that time, a large number of principalities in the Low Countries are united under the dukes of Burgundy. The Low Countries later become part of an absolutist world empire under Emperor Charles V. Following the Reformation and the Revolt against Spain, the region divides into two parts, which develops into two separate political entities.

The Call for Justice exhibition is structured around three themes: justice, law and injustice. Artworks relating to law and justice in the Low Countries are brought together and placed within the legal, historical and cultural contexts in which they were created. At the same time, the exhibition shows how powerfully these works of art express one of humanity's most universal desires: the pursuit of justice and it's complex confrontation with reality.

This exhibition features major works by artists including Quinten Massijs, Maarten van Heemskerck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Maerten de Vos, Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon van Dyck and Philippe de Champaigne. Loans are from institutions including the Prado and the Patrimonio Nacional in Madrid, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Ashmolean museum in Oxford and national and international private collections.

Programme

A metre-high inflatable figure wearing jeans and a life jacket is floating down the Dijle.

OP.RECHT.MECHELEN

This City Festival, held from 2016 to 2018, marks 400 years of legal history in the city. Through an extensive cultural programme, the city highlights the fundamental freedoms on which our society is built.

A large museum building with bronze sculptures and a shallow pond.

Collaboration

The exhibition is curated by Samuel Mareel of Museum Hof van Busleyden in collaboration with Ellen Goetstouwers (KMSKA), Elsje Janssen (KMSKA) and Manfred Sellink (KMSKA).

A hardback book entitled ‘Call for Justice’.

Exhibition Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue 'Call for Justice. Art and Law in the Burgundian Low Countries.' Published by Hannibal, it illustrates the universal pursuit of justice. Essay contributors include Samuel Mareel and Manfred Sellink.

A series of photographs of shouting young people hangs on a mirrored wall.

Programme for Young People

Together with MUS-E Belgium, the museum is launching a youth programme entitled Justice in Motion. The young people create artworks that are displayed in the museum during the exhibition. A guided tour and classroom resource are also being developed for use as a learning package today.

Card with the text: ‘The case is pending. Will your class reach a fair verdict?’

Museum Class

For children in the second and third years of primary education, the museum's educational team is creating a museum class entitled Hey, that’s not fair! In these class sessions, pupils discuss justice and injustice and try to find solutions to real situations.