This publication by De Vleeshal and MER. Paper Kunsthalle is realised in the framework of the past exhibition "Published by MER. Paper Kunsthalle" held at De Kabinetten van de Vleeshal, the Netherlands (October - December 2013). It features talks between Lorenzo Benedetti (then curator of De Vleeshal) and Luc Derycke (publisher) about art, books and artists' books.0.

This publication is a kind of workbook or manual. It is not a music history, nor is it a technical, musicological book. It is rather a book about materials ? musical materials and their relation to other artistic materials. It is not a book for professionals or specialists but for those who like to explore the capacities and possibilities of artistic materials. However, it never talks about them in a technical way. This book is instead about love and desire for old repertoires, and especially for polyphony, attempting to retrace its shape: the initial desire that makes one want to perform this music.

'Proportio' features specially commissioned artworks by contemporary artists, 20th century masterpieces, Old Master paintings, archaeological artefacts, as well as architectural models and a large library of historical books on proportions. All these works provide a lens to help us see what proportion can teach us about the essential design of the present and how we can use this knowledge to create a blueprint for the future. This exhibition is an opportunity to explore universal proportions and an invitation to reflect upon the interconnectedness of our universe. 'Proportio' includes newly commissioned installations by contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovíc, Anish Kapoor, Massimo Bartolini, Rei Naito, Michaël Borremans, Ettore Spaletti, along with existing masterpieces by Ellsworth Kelly, Carl André and Sol Lewitt, as well as antiquities, Old Masters and antique architectural models.

Berlinde De Bruyckere's work prompts the viewer to respond. That is why it has a particular appeal for writers of literature: they are fascinated by the compositions of distorted parts of humans and horses that refer to horror and comfort, to a cruel death and the sublime. De Bruyckere empties the bodies. Through holes, the public notices the darkness of a world inside that both appeals and repels. There is space around her work that resonates and in which writers can indulge in creativity -not by writing about objects, but by juxtaposing the work with creative texts. The author does not remove meanings of the work by trying to explain it, but rather adds to its meaning by responding to art with art. Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee rises to this challenge: together with De Bruyckere he has chosen fragments from his impassioned and unsettling novels that are full of great beauty. Thus, the two present a composition of texts and images that from inside illuminates the dark world of their work.

Overzicht van leven en werk van de Belgische schilder (1965- )