Last Sunday, Regional Television TVL visited my exhibition Man Moved Mountain in Genk. You can watch the interview (in dutch) on their website via this link.
The exhibition has been extended until early September.
Open by appointment, and now Sunday September 1, open from 1pm to 6pm. Welcome!
Le Charbonnage Art Residencies
Marcel Habetslaan 27,
3600 Genk (opposite La Biomista)
I recently had the pleasure of hosting the authors of the story series ‘Bodem en Kunst’*, which appears in the Dutch professional journal Bodem, in Belgium.
Day 1, Joop Okx and Theo Edelman visited my studio in Diest, where I told them about my work and working methods. Day 2 we visited Mining Museum Beringen together, where we were given an expert tour. The article they wrote about my work has now been published.
You can read it / download it here (pdf, dutch)
* Previous articles in this series have appeared on Otobong Nkanga, Monica Rotgans, Atelier NL and Jos de Putter, among others
Man Moved Mountain
Sunday, june 23 – july 31, 2024
open:
– thu july 25 : 17-21h
– su july 28 : 14-18h
and by appointment
www.lecharbonnage.com
During the month of May I worked at Le Charbonnage Art Residencies by invitation, and as you could predict if you know me a little, I’m still working there :-D.
A month is in fact very short, too short, to work if you first have to find the raw material for your paint, if you still have to make paint, if you are used to working on one painting for about a month. Knowing that this Art Residency was going to end in a solo exhibition with the work I made here, I had to change tack.
So what other bow has that become? Well, the Genk landscape, loved by landscape painters in the late 19th century, just because it has been so changed by the coal mines, is now much loved by me. Before I was allowed to paint on the unloading floor in Beringen in 2018, I regularly went to the Genk slag heaps to walk, draw and paint. With watercolours. Nothing to exhibit, just, for relaxation.
The terrils have not only become beautiful nature, they are also a silent witness to what humans are capable of when they work together.
But did I just read watercolour paint? Indeed. And can you make that from coal? And then also goes on canvas? And does that also take you a month? And did you actually find coal from Zwartberg? Well, the answer to all those questions, you will get at Le Charbonnage Art Residencies, on Sunday 23 June, from 3pm :-D Exciting, isn’t it? I think so too. So I’m going to continue working for a while. Time is really short now :-D
See you soon!
Vernissage Sunday 23 June from 3pm to 6pm
Marcel Habetslaan 27, 3600 Genk
From 1 May to 30 September, you can visit the Cultuurvuur Biennale in Meise’s Botanic Garden.
More than 50 artists created a work especially for the location assigned to them in advance.
The friendship temple, built in 1818 by order of Baron Vanderlinden (yes!) d’Hoogvorst, is full of references to freemasonry. It was with great enthusiasm that I delved into the subject, and from next week will introduce you to the result of many months of work:
‘The Light Wins’ is the title of my installation of seven 80 x 200 cm paintings, which together tell a special story. Or show a way, if you prefer. Below is a small preview. More explanation later.
I am present on 1 May, from 11am to 6pm.
Welcome!
Biennial Cultuurvuur 2024 – location 51 : friendship temple, containing An Vanderlinden’s installation ‘The Light Wins’
is hidden among the trees, very close to the ‘Meise Dorp’ entrance. Plans are available at the location.
Architect Vittorio Simoni suggested to Terhills Hotel that I create paintings in their new meeting rooms. And so it happened. ;-)
Meeting room ‘Terhills’ is close to, and overlooks ‘the queen shaft’ of the former Eisden coal mine.
In situ kunstwerk ‘Look up’ :
The work “Look up” complements the imposing view one experiences here. A play of lines inspired by the head of the queen shaft that one just cannot see. In this work, the hues were created by mixing coal-based pigments from the various Limburg mining sites and applying them layer by layer to the wall. The gray concrete structure frames the different shades of black, something miners also experienced as they rose from the underground via the mine shaft.
7
Long story short (sorry, I actually spend as little as possible at my computer and as much as possible in my studio in recent years): Architect Vittorio Simoni suggested Terhills Hotel to let me create paintings on the wall in their new meeting rooms. And so it happened. With the necessary stress, doubts, trial and error, as is usually the case with assignments with a tight deadline ;-).
In meeting room ‘Sporenzaal’, I used the entire alcove:
In situ artwork ‘Pedestal’ :
The work ‘Pedestal’ or Pedestal is an interpretation of the foot of the authentic mine shaft of Eisden. The work was realised with paint based on pigments obtained by grinding coal scraped from the surrounding slag heaps. Paint that transitions into the precious raw material mined from the underground by the miners. Coal on a pedestal, a work in tribute to the miners in the shadow of the queen shaft.
(photos by Leni Lenaerts for Terhills Hotel)
