Edith Dekyndt — L’image des choses et non les choses elles-mêmes, 2026

In two galleries of the Musée des Tissus, preserved as they were when the collections were removed, six display cases stand in semi-darkness. Muted walls, fluorescent lights and reflective glass create a hieratic setting in which Dekyndt’s textiles, videos and sculptures form tableaux. Animal, mineral and manufactured materials are shaped by staining, casting, weathering, growth and decay. The objects evoke histories of textiles and people moving between the Middle East, India, Asia and Europe, along routes shaped by empires and shifting borders, echoing histories carried by the museum’s collections. Dekyndt describes her practice as one of “accompanying” the “actors”. For the artist, materials are participants in ongoing exchanges with bodies, places and matter. Within the vitrines, objects and reflections appear and disappear, carrying traces of contact and transformation over time.

Edith Dekyndt’s practice engages with the imperceptible variations of matter, revealing the narratives embedded in objects and substances. She works with both organic and inorganic materials, exploring the transformations they undergo through time, chemical processes and environmental conditions. Positioned between sculpture, installation and experiment, her work reflects on the instability of form and meaning.