SYBIL is proud to present The Crucial Misunderstanding, a solo exhibition by Michel Tombroff (b.1964) that explores the fragile and complex relationships between art, philosophy, and mathematics through the lens of conceptual art. Emerging in the 1960s, conceptual art played a pivotal role in the transition from modernism to contemporary practice, radically rethinking the nature of form, language, and representation.

Drawing from this legacy, Tombroff investigates in this exhibition a fundamental tension at the heart of contemporary thought: how reality is presented, represented, and formalized. This inquiry leads to a critical reexamination of a key philosophical construction by Alain Badiou, revealing what the exhibition frames as a “crucial misunderstanding” between presentation and representation.

Rather than illustrating theory, The Crucial Misunderstanding uses artistic form to think, transforming abstract concepts into perceptual and spatial experiences. It invites viewers to encounter philosophy not as explanation, but as something that can be felt, navigated, and inhabited.

SYBIL presents “Forms of the Unseen: Art and Invisibility from the 1960s to Today”, a major group exhibition taking place at The Merode in Brussels, unfolding around the elusive and multifaceted theme of “the invisible.” Spanning over six decades, the exhibition brings together more than fifty works, creating a dialogue between seminal figures of conceptual and post-war art and a younger generation of contemporary artists. Significant works by Sol LeWitt, Robert Barry, Piero Manzoni, Rosemarie Trockel, Robert Mangold, Lynn Hershman Leeson, David Wojnarowicz, and Tino Sehgal are presented alongside more recent artistic proposals by Carole Vanderlinden, Loup Sarion, Sophie Whettnall, Loïc Raguénès, Sin Wai Kin, Valérie Mannaerts, Michel Tombroff and Armineh Negadari.

Through this cross-generational lens, the exhibition explores invisibility as a conceptual strategy, a visual paradox, a spiritual condition, and a tool to reveal political realities. It traces how artists, from the 1960s to today, have engaged with what resists perception—whether by reducing form to its most minimal expression, dematerialising the artwork entirely, or revealing what remains hidden within systems of representation.

In painting, the invisible emerges through processes of reduction and abstraction, where monochromatic surfaces and minimal gestures evoke the immaterial and the unseen. In conceptual practices, it challenges the necessity of physical presence, positioning the idea itself as the artwork—sometimes existing only as a set of instructions, a certificate, or even a thought. Lastly, the invisible takes on a political dimension, exposing underlying power structures, systemic violence, and the realities of marginalised or surveilled communities.

By bringing these approaches together, the exhibition offers a compelling exploration of how art can make visible what is, by nature, unseen.

Open Monday to Friday, 8 am-9pm

Address: The Merode, Place Poelaert 6, 1000 Brussels

To book a visit, please email laurencedujardyn@gmail.com