Four cherubs stand above our heads.
Three powerful verbs challenge us: Love, Think, Create.
Three substantives are sounding with the cries of revolutions: Freedom – Equality – Fraternity.
And a banner with a lapidary sentence ... “...and no more will we learn to war...”
Amidst all this, a simple man, a man endowed by nature with many talents and an uncommon intelligence.
And yet, only a man of his time ...
It is a place of memory, emotion, interrogation, exaltation and hope, for the generation that experienced the greatest two world wars.
This first exposition room retraces life and works of Robert.
It’s divided into 6 distinct sections (like, thought, create - liberty, equality, fraternity), this exposition is an occasion to enter in the life of Robert and shares visit’s space of his passions and fights.
This room is the departure point of the visit of Eben-Ezer’s Tower.
In the cherubs’ room, Robert Garcet has put all his art at the service of his philosophical thought.
It gathers all his symbolic. The supports he used mostly derived from John’s Apocalypse as well as from the prophet Ezekiel’s spirits.
Exhibition with interactive support
In this area, you can find, among other, information on the various exhibitions, events,… involving the museum.
You can also buy there catalogs, books, postcards ... in order to detail your visit of the museum.
Eben-Ezer was designed and built by Robert Garcet as of the 1950s.
Its completion is still in process.
The construction is made of flint stones, from the neighborhood.
The flint is exploited in the Geer valley since 1930 and it continues according to the same methods as then.
The Tower very implantation site is a former quarry, as well as all the surrounding wooded areas...
The site strives to regain its former natural state. We want to preserve this décor and therefore, we ask you to avoid all acts that might deteriorate it.
Eben-Ezer is an artistic creation, both in its whole as well as in each sculpture and in each stone used.
Reconstitution of the Thebah based on a scene from the Novel of the Thebah, an Eben-Ezer edition.
In the Thebah
"At the origin, the first continent encircled the northern sea. In those days, we, among ourselves, artisans of all excavations for a mile around, geometers of all angles, farmers and shepherds with infinite horizons, craftsmen and artists of the flint-art, we confusedly felt that something was going to happen".
The Thebah is a troglodytic city, discovered in the 60s in the valleys of the Geer and the Berwinne.
The world of the Thébah is situated at the confines of the great floods of the Tertiary, during and after.
They lived the last hours of the golden age.
The stone-figures.
Throughout this catalog, we show you a different aspect of Eben-Ezer and its author.
You most likely have your own interpretation of the works of Robert Garcet.
We want to add to it his intentions, the conducting thread.
None of his works should be taken in the first sense: look for the symbolism, the philosophical sense, its position in the numerical order and the artistic expression of the feelings animating it.
Each representation has its own meaning but its environment restores it in the author’s symbolic, plastic and historic universe.
Several years were needed to complete some of his works.
Generally, he led several projects concurrently - painting, sculpture, sculpting and writing – on a same subject.
His written works often provide keys for his sculptures.
The diversity of his expressions leaves no one indifferent.
It gives them harmony despite the eclecticism and sometimes the darkness of the atmospheres.
In the bowels of earth; Robert Garcet has buried his ideas, reproduced symbols and built a whole universe reminding us of the images en figures of the apocalypse.
Through this deliberately modest exhibition, we invite visitors to discover flint from a contemporary perspective, far removed from its purely prehistoric image.
In Eben-Emael, men — including Robert and Pierre Garcet — mined flint from 1930 to 2006, developing an industrial expertise that is now largely forgotten.
Flint originates from the Secondary Era, more specifically from the Cretaceous period, formed by marine deposits around 65 million years ago. Characteristic fossils from this period are on display. Robert Garcet also produced a detailed description of the flint layers in a six-metre-long scroll entitled “Scale of Maastrichtian Flint Layers”.
You will discover both raw flint and the different stages of its exploitation: extraction, shaping, and shipment. Extraction initially followed the activities of the cement industry before continuing for many years through underground tunnels. Around 1970, extraction also resumed in connection with the cement plant at the Romont quarry site.
Flint was used in numerous industries, including glassmaking, porcelain production, optical lenses, and more.
Cooperation has always existed among the various quarry operators. Each exploited the specific characteristics of the same geological layer: tuff and marl for the cement industry, and flint for the flint knappers, an essential material for their work.
This exhibition is also part of industrial archaeology. This expertise and hard labour must not be forgotten: these dedicated workers deserve our respect.
Created in 1999 by Robert Garcet and his sons Pierre and Marc, the Fantastic Art Exhibition has found its place in the large family of contemporary art through its singularity and originality.
Over the years, numerous artists have imagined, designed, and created sculptures, paintings, infrastructures, and installations that, for a year, inhabit Eben-Ezer Park.
All details about this exhibition and the annual theme can be found on the official website : http://artfantastique.be/