In the late 1970’s, embracing what Michel Gauthier calls ‘the Brancusian revolution’ and following certain lines of questioning set out by conceptual art and minimal art – both flourishing at the start of Vermeiren’s artistic career – Vermeiren began by putting the question of the pedestal at the very centre of his practice, working on the complex relationship between sculpture and this traditional element of its presentation. It was the start of a long journey of exploration, ‘looking for the base and the present’, during which the pedestal came to establish an autonomous sculptural destiny. At stake for Vermeiren was the relationship to the floor, to space and place, but also to the history of sculpture. From the outset, photography has also been a crucial instrument of his plastic dynamism. To this day, his dual artistic practice results in sculptures that create photographs and photographs that create sculptures.

Conceived by the artist, this book includes numerous images from his photographic archive; an introduction by Dirk Snauwaert and Zoë Gray; an in-depth analysis of the most recent sculptures by Michel Gauthier, curator at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, who has been following Vermeiren’s work for many years; and an essay by Susana Gállego Cuesta, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, on the key role of photography in his work.