Panamarenko, pseudonym of Henri Van Herwegen, was born in 1940 in Antwerp. He is a prominent poetic assemblagist and inventor. Opening out approaches to the visual arts, since the 1960s he has developed his own unique vision. His work takes many forms: aeroplanes, flying carpets, cars, flying saucers, submarines, etc.

The devices themselves are profoundly material, composed of tape, wood, plastic, glue, string, rubber bands, copper, etc. They are also illusionary in their alluding to birds, insects, and fish, and in the expectation that they will actually work, which they do theoretically, and at times in practice.

Like his friend Joseph Beuys, Panamarenko believes that there is a greater function for...