Wednesday 17 June marked exactly two years since the passing of art historian and curator Hans De Wolf. In his memory, two new sculptures were unveiled in the exhibition space of Pilar on the VUB Etterbeek campus. They were created by Honoré d’O, an artist and close personal friend of Hans De Wolf. The double work, created on a small scale, has been fixed to the walls in the entrance hall of Pilar and inside the exhibition space itself. The commemoration brought together family, colleagues and artists at Pilar. “A tribute adorned with a lasting remembrance.”
“An art connoisseur par excellence, a passionate curator, a cultural diplomat … and an academic, a professor of art history.” This is how Rector Jan Danckaert portrayed Hans De Wolf: as a multifaceted person and a bridge-builder between art and the university.
Hans De Wolf played a key role in establishing the Brussels arts platform and the PhD in the arts. The latter is an initiative that allows artists to obtain a doctorate at the university through an artistic project. “Hans brought the university to artists and artists to the university.”
Hans was also a driving force behind international exhibition projects and cultural diplomacy. He collaborated with museums and arts institutions across Europe and Asia. He introduced Belgian artists to cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. For his exhibitions, he worked closely with local universities and art schools. He also left a lasting mark on the VUB campus through major initiatives, including exhibitions at Pilar and Usquare.
Honoré d’O, the Belgian artist who was honoured by honorary rector Caroline Pauwels as the first ‘VUB Master of Arts’, spoke after the rector during the commemoration. He and Hans had known each other for a very long time. They first met during their first year at Our Lady’s College of Deinze in Zottegem. “I sat next to Hans, at the same desk. He was the wild and untameable one; I was the domesticated, tame one.”
They continued to inspire and challenge each other throughout their lives. Twelve years later, the two young men lived together in Ghent. It was there that their paths began to take shape. Honoré d’O decided not to become an architect but to create collages instead.“Hans had, in essence, already been everything: a poet, a troubadour, a playwright, a songwriter, a singer-songwriter, even on guitars with too few strings. With him, anything was possible. Hans taught me to read, to read a lot. Literature and art formed the foundation of the exchanges we had in our apartment on Clementinalaan.”
Years later, Honoré d’O had become the artist who, during the gathering at Pilar, shared memories of his deceased friend and presented an artwork in his honour. The ‘strangely bent metal rod’ incorporated into the sculpture was retrieved from a waste container behind the MAC’s museum in Hornu. He calls it an objet trouvé. The rod forms part of one of the two constructions mounted on the walls of Pilar. The two works are further composed of metal rods, hinges and connecting pieces visibly assembled on small plinths.
Honoré d’O: “A tribute adorned with a lasting remembrance.”
Hans De Wolf (C) Jean Cosyn
A final lesson
Hans De Wolf’s son — an archaeology student at the VUB — also spoke during the unveiling of the artwork about his father. He recalled how his father had taught him, as a young child, how to observe the world. Hans rewarded his children with points whenever they noticed something remarkable during an outing: a striking tag on a wall, an unusual stone on the beach, or an ordinary door in the city. “The points we collected could then be exchanged for an ice cream.”
He concluded with the final lesson he received from Hans, his father. “You can look at death with a smile,” was the insight his father shared with him not long before his passing.“And that you can choose life. It is not a simple choice, one for which Hans himself had to make many sacrifices. But that too is the art of living.”