THE VOTOS — A NON-EXHAUSTIVE ATLAS OF IMAGINATION

By Jean-Paul Lespagnard at La Verrière, Brussels

Between Marrakech and Brussels, between craft and ritual, Jean-Paul Lespagnard’s The Votos dissolves the distance between the sacred and the spectacular. At La Verrière – Patinoire Royale, these figures stand as shimmering totems of care, desire, and connection — a celebration of imagination as a shared, deeply human act of resistance.

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A constellation of symbols

Emerging from a month-long artistic immersion in the Medina of Marrakech, The Votos are hybrid presences shaped through conversations between people, materials, and cultures. Born from Lespagnard’s collaboration with local metalworkers, the sculptures bear the imprint of multiple hands and histories — a choreography of exchange where creation becomes communion.

Once attached to Brussels’ monumental Christmas tree at Grand-Place in 2025, these figures now return stripped of ornament. Freed from glitter and spectacle, they reclaim their autonomy. Suspended in the tranquil light of La Verrière, they appear like guardians of plural joy — part saint, part pop star, part spirit — what Lespagnard calls “a non-exhaustive atlas of imaginaries.”

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Reclaiming the ex-voto

The project is rooted in one of humanity’s most universal gestures: the ex-voto, a tangible prayer offered in gratitude or hope. Lespagnard reinterprets this archetype through the lens of our contemporary anxieties and desires. In a trance-like process of automatic drawing, he allowed forms to emerge: mythic creatures, cultural icons, hybrid identities colliding and merging into one another.

What unfolds is not a classification but a constellation — a space of coexistence beyond binaries or hierarchies. These figures speak of transformation, fluidity, and belonging; their ambiguity feels queer in the most cosmic sense — a freedom to remain undefinable, constantly remade by relation.

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Craft as dialogue, art as care

Each piece carries traces of collaboration and intimacy. The hammered metal still vibrates with the rhythm of Marrakchi workshops, the air of the medina alive in its texture. Through this collective act of making, The Votos embody an ethic of attention — to material, to others, to the invisible bonds that sustain us.

In Lespagnard’s hands, devotion becomes not an act of faith in the divine but in one another. The installation avoids spectacle, preferring vulnerability and openness. It calls for slower looking, quieter connection — an invitation to see how beauty emerges in intersection, hybridity, and shared wonder.

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Solidarity beyond the gallery

Extending its meaning into action, The Votos can also be acquired online, with all proceeds going to support the Belgian Food Banks. This gesture underscores the exhibition’s commitment to solidarity — transforming contemplation into care, art into daily practice.

In an age obsessed with clarity and control, Lespagnard reminds us that mystery still matters. The Votos reintroduce wonder as a radical gesture, a politics of tenderness. They remind us that our most essential connections — creative, spiritual, queer — are the ones that keep us alive.

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