Solo exhibition of Clara Spilliaert
Soil Mate at Gaasbeek Castle
26.06 » 15.11.2026
Gaasbeek Castle welcomes artist Clara Spilliaert (b. 1993, Tokio) for her first solo museum exhibition. She interweaves a selection of her existing works and a newly created work with this unique setting and its rich history.
Spilliaert's artistic practice links personal experiences with reflections on history and elements of nature. Relocating from Japan to Belgium led to the creation of thousands of intimate drawings in her journal that formed the seed of her visual language. Nowadays, she works with a wide range of media – from drawings and murals to ceramic sculptures and site-specific installations. Inside the castle, you will discover that variety, which is reflected in the works that Spilliaert has created during the past decade. The works themselves even take on the form of subtle interventions that interact with the rooms of the castle and their meanings.
"In Gaasbeek Castle, surrounded by nature and silence, Clara Spilliaert's work is given space to unfold in a harmonious way. It is a privilege to offer this young and talented artist a stage for her first museum solo exhibition. As with David Claerbout's The Woodcarver and the Forest, a new creation takes centre stage: Soil Mate, a stop-motion film that reveals the rhythms of the subsoil. Spilliaert's work touches on themes of femininity, vulnerability and connection - themes that also resonate with the castle's history.
The exhibition invites you to look at the relationship between humans and nature in a new way."
- Isabel Lowyck, director Gaasbeek Castle
"By weaving together culture and nature in playful and unexpected ways, Clara highlights the rebellious character of the castle’s stories."
- Marieke Debeuckelaere, collection and presentation
Clara Spilliaert creates images that achieve a fine balance between the everyday and the allegorical and are rooted in attentive observation. In Calendar (2017) – itself a nod to ancient books of hours – her urban garden and the way it moves and changes with the seasons reflect an inner world. The work can be seen in the Gallery, where it is reflected against the castle's Inner Garden that is visible through the window. Spilliaert delves more deeply into the relationship of humans with their bodies and their surroundings. She explores how fixed forms and symbols can dissolve into new, fluid narratives in which people, animals and plants merge, as in the amorphous Coats of Arms.
"Trees grow from a body, birds drink from human breasts, and a tree makes love to a human. Humans and nature merge into each other, like soil mates."
- Zeynep Kubat, advisor and author visitors' guide
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New creation
For this exhibition, Clara Spilliaert created Soil Mate: a short, stop-motion film, in which a picnic blanket acts as a stage. Based on her personal experience picnicking in the castle's parterre garden, she turns her gaze to what is going on beneath the surface. We then descend into a world that operates to a rhythm of its own, largely independent on any human presence. The film unfolds the story of an imaginary patch of land, month by month, in twelve scenes that repeat. Within this cyclical journey, processes taking place above and below ground become intertwined. Passing through tunnels and along food chains, you are eventually transported back to your own body.
Spilliaert explores the tension that exists between private and public, control and rebellion, surface and depth.
"Clara Spilliaert's images speak in a soft palette, while singing in unruly tones." - Zeynep Kubat
Practical info
» From 26 June to 15 November 2026
» At Gaasbeek Castle, the expo is part of the museum tour
» https://www.kasteelvangaasbeek.be/en/whats-on/clara-spilliaert-5
Save the date / Press preview
On Wednesday 24 June we welcome the press for an exclusive preview of the exhibition Soil Mate. You are free to visit the exhibition between 10 am and 1 pm. Can you attend? Please let us know by mailing to tess.thibaut@vlaanderen.be.
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Installation views of the exhibition will be available in the course of July.
Tess Thibaut
