EXHIBITION: MATGEN & BIREN

In spring 2024, the Slate Museum brings together two artist-friends from the Arlon region to exhibit together in the former slab sawmill of Haut-Martelange. These are Renaud MATGEN, known for his superimposed slate sculptures, and Frédéric BIREN, well-known a painter in the Greater Region for his paintings with melancholic faces.

Originally initiated by those responsible for the Municipality of Martelange (B), the exhibition has a real cross-border character due to the fact that the municipalities on both sides of the border, namely Martelange for Belgium and Rambrouch for the Grand Duchy , come together for a co-organization with the Slate Museum on the exceptional site of the old slate quarries of Haut-Martelange. Indeed, straddling two countries and steeped in the omnipresent slate heritage, the Slate Museum is the preferred location for creating cross-border events and highlighting the common slate heritage on both sides of the border.

Slate, in this context, is indeed the unifying element: the stone common to the entire Belgian-Luxembourg Ardennes, the working stone par excellence of Matgen's artistic work and the stone which builds the patina of the walls of the old sawmill to highlight the melancholy of Biren's characters. The majesty and sumptuousness of Matgen's work with its armies of humanoids will do its part to ensure that architecture and works coexist in perfect harmony, especially since Matgen took, from an old stock of slates , the raw material necessary to create at least one work in Martelange slates.

With a wink and his own very personal enthusiasm, Matgen recruited Sébastien Stouvenaker a third craftsman-friend from the region to join them for the duration of the event. Martelange pastry chef, Stouvenaker, renowned throughout the Greater Region for his outstanding artisanal creations, will create a Matgen sculpture made entirely of chocolate. This incredible and unique project will see the creation of an ephemeral dark chocolate work, a material that perfectly knows how to imitate the phyllades of slate schist. Indeed, in the week before the exhibition, the two friends will meet in the pastry chef's workshop to create a typically Matgen assemblage cast and cut from chocolate slabs.

Throughout the exhibition and together with a work by each artist, the chocolate sculpture will be dedicated to a good cause. Indeed, at the initiative of the artists, an association on each side of the Belgian-Luxembourg border was elected to share the benefit of the art creations following a silent auction, namely the Friends of the Slate asbl, initiators and organizers of the Musée de l'Ardoise on one side and Kiwanis Martelange on the other side.

The exhibition is freely accessible during opening hours of the Musée de l’Ardoise

• Tuesday to Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 5th, the two beneficiary associations will organize a closing event from 4:00 p.m. with the announcement of the winners of the silent auction.

Don't hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity to immerse yourself in the underground world of the Martelange slate quarries: the unusual route of the Johanna quarry awaits you - 42 m underground with its majestic chambers, its unique constructions, and its treasures thousands of years old, all presented through the use of lighting and modern, lively projections.