Input/Output :: Exhibition in De Bond

A selection of the paintings series, Anywhere Reloaded has been selected for Input/Output, a competition and exhibition in De Bond (Brugge) with Hallveig Agustsdottir, Charlotte De Groote, Peter De Meyer, Marie-Laure Delaby, Filip Gilissen, Phillip Henderickx, Oscar Hugal, Berten Jaekers, Jonas Marga, Matgorzata Maria Olchowska, Sven Overheul, Jasper Rigole, Yoko Tack, Stijn Van Acker, Sofie Van Der Linden en Tamara Van San.

The works will be presented from  October 17 – November 15, 2009.
Opening on Friday 16th of October!

De Bond
Buiten Smedenvest 1 -8000 Brugge

Extensions … (of media, images and space)

During the last Threeplusone residency and exhibition that took place in Zennestraat 17 (Brussels) this late summer, I presented an installation mixing flickering light and painting projection with the help of Arduino , Processing and a small LDR.

The aim of the residency was to create new site-specific works, directly inspired from this old laboratory, and connected with the idea of “extension”, coming from certain questions that we wanted to raise, such as: How to extend a media with another?, How to extend an image into a space?, How to extend a space into a media?

Starting from that, I chose one of the rooms available in Zennestraat 17: the one completely painted in black during the last exhibition, except for a white frame. This room was especially made to welcome a projection… and suited to one of the works I wanted to achieve: a hybrid installation where outside light interfere with the inner lights of the image. A complete auto-sufficient system that the public could only look at and not interact with.

From this process, results an empirical dialog between  two flickering phenomenons, a tensed experience with a constantly appearing/disappearing image, touching nearly the state of film, but remaining always a still, questioning ourselves on the reality of the space, the image and the experience that we are living.

A video documentation of the installation will come soon but here you can already find some pictures…

Generic :: Expanded-Scapes

For Expanded-Scapes (Leopoldskazerne, Ghent, 2009), I have shown recent works on generic spaces. Using maps and construction sites as underlying ground-works of the generic template, I create improbable spaces where imaginary/virtual flows (traffic, circulation, communication, economic exchanges) are the only inhabitants.

More pictures from Expanded-Scapes here!
More from Generic there!

Generic :: mural painting

mural painting in my studio, Leopoldskazerne, Ghent, 2009
(work in progress)

Anywhere reloaded at Nucleo

From this Monday 5th of January until 27th February 09, some paintings of the anywhere reloaded project are exhibited in Nucleo’s office in Ghent. You can visit it during working hours from Monday till Friday.

Nucleo develops affordable, good quality studios in the city of Ghent and its surroundings for artists active in various art disciplines. I could rent a temporary studio from them this year, located in the beautiful Leopold Caserne.

contact: info@nucleo.be

Adress: Nucleo vzw
Lange Violettestraat 237-239
9000 Ghent, Belgium

photos: Kristina Ianatchkova

Anywhere reloaded :: recent works

Here are some pictures of recent works in progress (they still need to be finished after being mounted on board).

After exploring and revealing specific qualities of the non-place self (heterogeneity, reflective surfaces, geometricity) by hollowing out the space of its recognizable elements, I try now to go deeper in the merge of  surfaces. I’d like to lead the image to a certain state of in-between, between something recognizable and something where all directions would have been erasing.

Uncertaincies/Behind the seen//OpenAteliers

This week-end, Juan Duque and I opened the door of our new atelier in Ghent where we showed our work in progress and research materials on the topic of contemporary landscape. We presented both video works, Juan showed also drawings and an installation in the studio and I presented my photographic and painting works.

Here is a little text about Juan:
Architect and Urban Designer with studies in Media Art, Juan Duque works on the ‘visuality’ of the Landscape and the process of ‘decontextualization’, ‘alteration’ or migration of the images. Implementing different media, his work focuses on research on ‘extended’ landscapes resulting from digital or physical alterations and distortions.
http://www.betweencorners.blogspot.com

It was quite interesting to present different approaches of the contemporary landscape in general and I’m really curious to see how our collaboration will evolve. I’d like to experiment more things in my video work and to propose a collaborative screening on this topic.

Finally, even if I was missing some friendly faces, we could say that it was a success, lot of people and some good feedbacks. Long life to the OA!

ps: thanks to Hallveig G.K. Agustsdottir for the pictures!

Anywhere reloaded :: painting project

Here are some pictures of the paintings presented in the entrance hall of Sint-Lukas, Brussels in June 08. For a detailed look on the paintings go to http://www.disconnectedmacha.be and click on “anywhere reloaded” to see the digital portfolio. There is also a printed portfolio available on request.

anywhere reloaded, pigment on paper, mounted on board, 148×111cm, 2007/08

Anywhere Reloaded :: post 03

Anywhere reloaded #04, painting on paper, 150×120cm, 2007

I’ve now a good series of painting material, but as an image is never experienced as a real situation and finally is only a strong personal interpretation of a space, I plan to prepare an intervention in it. I don’t know if I’ll get the authorisations for doing this at North Station Brussels, which belongs to SNCB, but it could actually be in any non-space. I need at least few equipment and access to electricity.

My idea is to fictionalise the space by use of lights and a certain “mise en scene” in order to allows individuals to perceive it differently. Once the gap created, the viewer becomes actor of the emptiness. He has to fill the time-space offered to him. This concept join what I developed with the “dis-connected project” where the emptiness available in the “helmets” allowed the users to dis-connect from their environment.

Anywhere Reloaded :: post 02

Anywhere reloaded #03, painting on paper, 150×120cm, 2007

AR will be my main project during this year at Transmedia. I would like to develop further this research on the relationship between the objective status of our environment and the way we perceive it, this applied specifically to urban environment.

How do we fulfill this gap between us and the outside world? How could perception be translated and modulated by different media, according their own properties, in order to correspond to our own vision?
The relationship between us and our environement is not only managed by a functional aspect but also by the “affect” we develop in it. To understand this notion of affect and how it interfere, I started to translate my perception of urban spaces through photo, painting, video,…

I’m also interested by the ambiguity that could appears in this merging of media. The specificity of each one could be found in the different images and make them more complex.

But it’s first of all a certain atmosphere, a dis-connected time-space which can bring a certain idea of beauty in a fully factitious environment, that I’m looking for. How contemplation could emerge from artificiality?

In the environment where I move, there is no more question of natural landscapes but of ultra-functional urban space. Our brain adapt itself, try to generate visual pleasure and can create a sublimated vision of our environment. Thus a corridor, a waiting room, a staging area, a non-space can become contemplative, meaning generator.