Centrale presents Maëlle Dufour’s exhibition Porteuses at Centrale | vitrine (10.04 > 22.06.2025). Porteuses is a continuation of Maëlle Dufour's work, in which, with each new sculptural intervention, she examines the propensity of human beings to control nature and their fellow creatures. Here, by choosing to focus on one of Brussels' urban rivers, the artist invites us to reflect on our relationship with the environment and the heritage that flows beneath our feet, while highlighting the tensions between urban development, ecology and the social fabric. Not far from Centrale flows the Senne, a river that has been buried under Brussels for 150 years after a major arching operation. The river was once an essential waterway and a flowing water source, it became an open sewer and the Senne...
Centrale presents Maëlle Dufour’s exhibition Porteuses at Centrale | vitrine (10.04 > 22.06.2025). Porteuses is a continuation of Maëlle Dufour's work, in which, with each new sculptural intervention, she examines the propensity of human beings to control nature and their fellow creatures. Here, by choosing to focus on one of Brussels' urban rivers, the artist invites us to reflect on our relationship with the environment and the heritage that flows beneath our feet, while highlighting the tensions between urban development, ecology and the social fabric. Not far from Centrale flows the Senne, a river that has been buried under Brussels for 150 years after a major arching operation. The river was once an essential waterway and a flowing water source, it became an open sewer and the Senne was gradually channeled and covered to adapt to the growing needs of an expanding city. Its disappearance from the city dweller's field of vision reflects a wider change: a disenchantment with water, often reduced in the city to a domesticated and controllable resource, relegated to the background of everyday life. At the same time, as cities heat up each summer and water sources become more precious, renaturation and riverbank enhancement projects are being developed, such as the Max-en-Senne project. Scheduled to start in winter 2025 on the site of the current Parc Maximilien, this project to rehabilitate the Senne is part of an approach to restoring the ecological and cultural role of the river, but at the same time raises social issues linked to gentrification and the value of access to water. For her installation at Centrale, Maëlle Dufour makes the water of this hidden river ‘visible’ and brings it into the exhibition space. Replicating the gesture of water carriers, performers carry the water of the Senne, carefully collected under the vaults that house it. Carried on their backs in functional sculptures designed by the artist, the water makes its way through the streets of Brussels to Centrale, where it is poured into a transparent water tower shaped container. Exposed for all to see, the water of this urban river is reintegrated into the collective imagination, offering a new perspective on our relationship with water, public space and the memory of the city. __ Maëlle Dufour (1994, Mons) creates installations that question progress at the heart of past, present and future eras, as well as the destruction of ecosystems by human beings. She explores the traces of decadence as much as the signs of hope. Her art is expressed in a true explosion of materials, mixing clay, mud, bluestone, ceramics, rubbish, lead sheets, rectangular mirrors and bright red blown glass. These can be monumental ruins, lunar volcanic landscapes or narrow watchtowers. Doriane Biot (1995, Brussels) is a curator and cultural worker working in artist-run centres, museums and university galleries. She is involved in voluntarily interdisciplinary projects that aim to highlight the relevance of image and exhibition practices in moving social and cultural contexts. Through this collaboration, the duo delves into the tensions and folds of the visual lexicon that Maëlle Dufour pursues with each new creation: the archaeology of waste, variations in scale, the gestures of safeguarding. The artist/curator duo warmly thanks the Sewer Museum team for their collaboration. Visit the Sewer Museum to discover the history of the Senne. With the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation >Opening Hours
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 10:30:00 - 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:30:00 - 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:30:00 - 18:00 |
| Saturday | 10:30:00 - 18:00 |
| Sunday | 10:30:00 - 18:00 |