Henri van Herwegen, known by the name Panamarenko, became renowned as a painter, performance artist and sculptor whose fascination with science and technology led him to create aircraft and flying objects both semi-functional and fantastical.
Martha Schwendener wrote ‘to understand Panamarenko’s work, you have to understand that lift-off is only one of many possible measures of success.’ (Artforum Review, December 2001)
Born to a family of boat mechanics in Antwerp in 1940, Panamarenko studied at the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1955 to 1960. He soon became interested in aeroplanes and human powered flight, and this was reflected in the name he chose which is purportedly an acronym for ‘Pan American Airlines and Company’. Projects stemmed from his first major work Das Flugzeug in 1967, to a Zepplin named The Aeromodeller (1969-71) and Archiaeopterix III (1990), a mechanical chicken intended to look like a pre-historic flying dinosaur.
IMAGE: Kristien Daem
