Vaast Colson — CASUS: You Used to Be Part of Something
20 Sep 2025 - 11 Jan 2026
In 2005, Vaast Colson created You Used to Be Part of Something, a sculptural cake made of pink foam rubber, cut into twelve equal slices. Each slice was presented as an autonomous artwork and subsequently distributed among various public and private collections. Twenty years later, Muhka is bringing this sculptural puzzle back together—reuniting all twelve parts in a single space for the first time.
This reunion offers more than a visual experience—it serves as a critical reflection on the nature of the art object and its institutional context. Colson’s work prompts questions about the circulation of artworks within a world of collections, markets, and museums. You Used to Be Part of Something hovers at the threshold between sculpture and concept, between material presence and symbolic value. The wooden transport crate doubles as a pedestal—a tangible reminder of the mobility of art objects, but also of the paradoxes of presentation and ownership: only when unpacked and displayed does the artwork become visible as art. At the same time, the original moment—the shared experience, the collective ‘something’ of which it was once a part—is irretrievably lost.
With its reference to pie charts, the work draws connections between individualisation, distribution, and consumption. The familiar saying ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it’ echoes in the title: to consume something is, simultaneously, to destroy it. The work conveys a sense of loss—a loss of community, of artistic integrity, of connectedness. The work marks not only a moment in Colson’s artistic trajectory, but also serves as a broader reflection on the artworld and its structures.
The presentation is accompanied by a research project in collaboration with the University of Antwerp, focusing on the conservation of artworks made from plastic. The reunion of the twelve sculptures offers a rare opportunity to study the influence of time, environment, and material on identical artworks—and thus to make tangible not only the art itself, but also its transience and meaning, In addition, an in-depth public programme brings together voices from beyond the art world—a linguist, a philosopher, a scientist, a politician, among others. Each reflects from their own field of expertise on what the phrase ‘You Used to Be Part of Something’ means to them.
