So it may seem redundant to call your exhibition Crazy Flying Machines - aren't they all? - but that's what Jean Leclercqz has done, with an exhibition in the unusual setting of the aviation hall of Brussels' Royal Museum of Army and Military History.
Amid the Spitfires, Dakotas and Tiger Moths hang 10 enormous drawings of the most outrageous flying machines - at six by four metres, a perfect scale for the vast hall. At floor level are more of the same, but scaled more for exhibition viewing.
The works are hand drawn by Leclercqz, then scanned and coloured on computer. "I was working on a logo for a European association in the aviation industry, just doodling freely," explains Leclercqz, who runs a graphic design company in Brussels. "I liked the look of something I'd done - it looks to me now like a flying ice-cream scoop - and now I have more than 150 crazy flying machines."
The full effect of the works can only be gained in situ, where they are juxtaposed with real flying machines someone once took his life in his hands going up in. You get the sense that aircraft design split at an early stage, and Leclercqz belongs to the species that was less successful - for the time being.
"At first I was a bit afraid of showing against the backdrop of real planes, but in fact it works really well". He says that some members of the public walk right past and don't seem to see a thing, but young people are quick to notice. "When I see children taking an interest, I consider that a success," says Leclercqz. "The real plane fanatics who take the aircraft here very seriously - who come at the weekends to restore old planes - could have been bothered by the idea, but they don't seem to be disturbed a bit."
It's unusual for this museum to host an exhibition that is purely aesthetic - and certainly on such a scale. "To be honest, when the government collapsed, I thought ‘uh-oh, this is the end'," admits Leclercqz. "I was sure the exhibition would never happen".
The Royal Museum of Army and Military History is a federal institution, and the success of Leclercqz's application is considered an administrative success. "The hope is that it might leave the door open to future exhibitions of a similar sort," he says.
Leclercqz uses a Lambda printing process, which is very flexible in terms of mounting material. The large-scale works are essentially tarpaulins; the majority of the smaller works are printed on aluminium, which brings out lines and colours in all their high-definition glory.
Technicalities aside, the works are bright, playful, comic. "I'm inspired by my daughters," he says - he has three. "I'm also a collector of tribal art, and my wife is from Burkina Faso, so there are influences from that - from African masks for example. A lot of my flying machines have an organic, animal or insect look, as if they have faces."
As do many real aircraft, not to mention helicopters who stole their style from the dragonfly. Many involve flying machines superimposed on photos of city scenes: the royal palace, the Botanique, the Jubelpark museum itself (pictured). Anything is possible with computer images. "I can even work to order," he says.
The exhibition officially lasts just a few more weeks but could stick around longer or pop up again later, as the museum now owns these works. In the meantime, Leclercqz is thinking of taking more of his work underground. "I'd like to do a metro station," he says. "Maybe with old trams transformed into flying machines."
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