Gare du Midi
Flying Over (2004)
This work of art exudes pure romance. The painting represents, over five separate canvases, a flight over a wooded landscape, enveloped in a light mist. It is a very stylised work which makes it easily accessible. The blue in the painting evokes an imaginary place that is airy and full of freedom. Jacques Bage found inspiration in the myth of Icarus, imagining how he would have seen the landscape while he ascended towards the heavens. The line of sight guides us towards a distant horizon through the flooding light and the undulating valleys. The sky takes up more space than the landscape, precisely in order to give the impression of "flying over" the scene.
The work of art is meant to contrast with the busy station in order to give the passer-by a feeling of tranquillity.
Jacques Bage (Liège, 1942)
Born in Liège, Jacques Bage studied at the "Institut Saint-Luc" in Mons and specialised in painting and engraving at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Mons, and also in ceramics at Hornu. Since the middle of the 1970s, Jacques Bage has taken part in many different exhibitions. From time to time we can observe a more abstract element in Bage's work, but his most recent paintings are more concrete, with nature as a source of inspiration, as it was at the beginning of his artistic career.
The landscapes which he paints exude a hazy, misty atmosphere, in which shapes are substituted with coloured veils, whether they are clouds, trees or water movements. In many of his recent works, the colours are slightly more pure and contrasted, and are the result of carefully controlled brushstrokes.
Structures rythmées (1988)
This work of art is a technical masterpiece of conception and construction. It consists of a ceiling painting for the whole of the ticket office area as well as part of the platforms, in a particularly large metro station in an important location. So that passengers can find their bearings, he painted the ceilings yellow, red or orange according to the level. The colours accentuate the ceiling structure. The differences in level, profiles, displacements and their vertical, horizontal or oblique movements are underlined by large strips of yellow paint. This variation is counterbalanced in the long row of columns that stand next to each other, also in yellow, which separate the hall into two parts over its whole length. The artist created this work in order to highlight the raw construction, by allowing the impressive elements of the building's shell to remain visible. Thanks to the integration of his art in architecture, Moeschal's work gives a dynamic and lively character to the three-dimensional aspect.
Jacques Moeschal (Uccle 1913 - Ixelles, 2004)
Jacques Moeschal trained as an architect and sculptor. His sculptures can be described as the creations of an engineer-architect-artist, with the emphasis on the technical and scientific aspect. The artist believes that architecture and sculpture are controlled by the same laws. Moeschal was fascinated by the technical possibilities of his time. He was the first artist in Belgium to use concrete for large-scale sculptures. We also have him to thank for the spire of the civil engineering pavilion built for the World exhibition in 1958, as well as "Le signal" (The signal) at Groot-Bijgaarden interchange with the Brussels ring road on the E40, and "La Route de l'Amitié" (The Route of Friendship) for the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968, a ring road which links all the premises where the Games took place and is lined with monumental sculptures.
