Kris Martin / Collana
Feel the heartbeat of history
A new artwork welcomes you: Collana (2024-2026) by Kris Martin
The monumental sculpture Collana (Italian for necklace) was created by Belgian conceptual artist Kris Martin for the Entrance Building of Gaasbeek Castle. Rather than precious gemstones, this necklace is composed of carefully selected natural stones (Turkish onyx, Ardennes boulders, and Irish karst stones). Each piece was chosen for its unique shape, weight, colour, and texture. Martin has created a landmark by placing the work at a crossroads: the point where the public road meets the protected landscape surrounding the castle parks of Gaasbeek and the nearby Groenenberg estate. It is here that visitors pause before setting out on a walk or a visit to the castle itself.
Collana nestles against the sloping grassy slope, in harmony with the Entrance Building designed by the Pierre Hebbelinck studio. Like the building, the sculpture draws warmth from natural materials and adopts a modest presence within the green surroundings. Rather than presenting itself as a 'loud' monument, the sculpture acts as a poetic landmark in the landscape. The result is a work that gradually reveals itself to attentive passers-by.
It subtly nods to the Land Art of the 1970s, in which artists such as Richard Long considered the landscape not only a backdrop, but an intrinsic carrier of meaning. In a similar way, Martin’s intervention is fleeting in experience yet lasting in thought: a reinterpretation of the landmark, distinguished not by visibility but by its naturalness, subtlety, and layers of meaning.
One of these layers lies in the necklace itself, an object traditionally associated with femininity and adornment. It echoes the influential woman who shaped both the history and the appearance of Gaasbeek Castle: Marquise Marie Arconati Visconti, the castle’s final resident and an important patron of the arts.
Yet Collana is not simply a passive object to look at. Martin invites visitors to interact with the sculpture and experience it physically. Despite its monumental weight (the heaviest link weighs nearly one tonne), you can symbolically “wear” the necklace by placing the end around your own neck. In this way, the artwork becomes both performative and poetic: visitors quite literally carry the weight of history around their neck, in a gesture that balances seriousness and playfulness, reality and surrealism.
This artwork was realised as part of Kunst in Opdracht, a programme that invites artists to contribute to cultural heritage in public space through commissioned projects. With special thanks to the Department of Culture, Youth and Media, the Flemish Government’s Facilities Agency, and Ann Geeraerts.
Kris Martin (b. 1972, Kortrijk, Belgium) is a conceptual artist who works across sculpture, drawing, photography, performance and other disciplines. His work explores fundamental aspects of the human condition, focusing on themes such as transience, faith, and history. Drawing on the artistic strategy of the ready-made and working within a minimalist and subtly surreal tradition, Martin transforms existing objects or literary, religious, and art-historical symbols through minimal interventions, creating new poetic gestures. His work is marked by contemplation, humour, and beauty, and frequently enters into dialogue with the public space. Examples include Altar (2014) on the beach in Ostend and the mosaic installation Creation (2024) in the garden of Abby in Kortrijk. Martin exhibits widely in Belgium and internationally. His solo exhibitions have been shown at institutions including S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany), Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau (Switzerland), the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Austria), the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco and MoMA PS1 in New York. He lives and works in Mullem, Belgium.