In the wunderkammer, an emblematic work by the artist Anish Kapoor (°1954) is set into the wall at a height chosen by the artist. This work is a small parallelepipedal volume covered with pure blue pigment and embedded in the wall. Dated 1996, it is part of a process of reflection that began in the early 1980s and that the artist is still carrying out today.

Kapoor has always wished to rethink space in formal but also psychological and even psychoanalytical terms; his work refers to the earth, the mother, sex, the gap, proliferation, absence, reflection and light. These are all fundamental themes that he has always explored with great acuity and skill. Kapoor is English but was born and raised in India, which is evident in some of his work (as in this case with the use of pure pigments).

Although relatively small in size, this work could be seen as a kind of window into space. The work absorbs the light to the point of preventing any reference once the gaze is drawn into it. The loss of the sense of measure is complete. The use of pigment gives the work a three-dimensionality but also brings to mind Yves Klein's colour, IKB, underlining the relationship to the non-tangible and the great spirituality that charges this work.

Up close, the illusion is deeply disturbing. One approaches the moment where the two-dimensional world meets the three-dimensional world. As we move backwards, the vibration fades to a dark form that becomes formlessness.

Although physically limited, the work seems to open up to an immense, unsuspected, secret space. A psychological space. We are literally plunged into a new dimension and our usual perception is somewhat altered. Anish Kapoor has always valued the sensory experience, which can be exhilarating or constraining.

Anish Kapoor's work seems timeless, self-generating, yet asserts the here and now.