Meet our graduates
Anu Vahtra | Damiano Curschellas | Julien Jonas | Justine Ahern | Luth Lea Roose | Miguel Escobar | Molly MacLallen | Nienke Fransen | Siebert Mispelon | Simon Gheeraert | Thomas Sadée
#1 | Anu Vahtra
Towards the incongruities of space
2019–2020
Video loops, plotter prints, pigment prints, wood, rope, mobile walls
Dimensions variable
My impression had always been that Brussels was a city that possessed an overall atmosphere of being strung together in a haphazard way. I saw proof of this in the large amount of dormant construction sites, buildings only partly torn down or never finished, storefronts boarded up for what seemed like ages. It felt as if the city was constantly under construction, though at a very slow pace. As I navigated through the city, supported by the concept of “brusselisation”, I began to understand that this haphazard atmosphere, this “exciting spectacle of contrasts and paradoxes” is not a mere atmosphere but rather the way the city is “organised”. This installation presents excerpts from the process of observing and documenting these phenomena hosted in a formation of mobile walls. The title of the work is borrowed from The Poetry of Incongruities – Spatial Proof by Contradiction, a poem by Lieven De Cauter.
About Anu Vahtra
Anu Vahtra (1982, Tallinn) is an artist working with found spatial situations. Initiated by the architectural characteristics as well as historical and contextual background of a certain site, her works often focus on the exhibition format and specifics of an exhibition space but also tackle issues of built environment and public space. Currently based in Brussels.
Contact
www.anuvahtra.com
#2 | Damiano Curschellas
Untilted, 2020
Aluminum
31 x 90,5 x 68 x 0,5 cm
At first glance, Untilted emanates a Minimalist aura: sterile panels of spiritless, industrial material—aluminum—placed next to each other, mirroring the space and the spectators. Upon closer inspection, we notice that the panels are riddled by variously shaped holes. These are types of hang holes, taken from the technical specifications of products. Any of these holes can be used in order to hang the work. A technical detail, usually concealed, now invades the picture plane and takes center stage.
Like the hang holes, aluminum panels are often used to support artworks behind the scenes. Placed on the back of paper-works they prevent the unevenness of the surface. Like the holes, they also move from obscurity to the limelight in Untilted. In addition, their supportive role is doubled: only if the panels lean onto one another, only if they provide each other with support, can they become untilted, aligned.
– Arnon Ben-Dror
About Damiano Curschellas
Damiano Curschellas lives and works in Brussels. His practice encompasses sculpture, installations as well as language. The exhibition as a medium plays an intrinsic role in his way of working and results occasionally in curatorial and collaborative work.
Contact
damiano.curschellas@hotmail.com
instagram: @damianocurschellas
#3| Julien Jonas
Strategy no.1, 2020. 170 x 130 cm, oil on canvas
Untitled (grey stripes), 2019. 69 x 59 cm, oil on canvas
It is difficult to compress my practice into a clear discourse. It has been several years now that I dedicate myself to the act of painting. That act on itself is impossible to describe without confronting myself with the non-verbalism of this particular process. Nevertheless, my interest to paint evolved from a specific delightfulness about the significance of painting. My preoccupation with the fundamentals of painting operates within a large field of exploration where abstraction, depiction and the illusionistic purpose of the painterly frame compose the main questions in my artistic practice. Each generated image tends to create an interrogation about the meaning it produce. This ambiguous perception reflects upon the audience a dialogical stream where the uncertainties of the gaze are confronted with an inward feeling that sometimes will result in an unclear comprehension.
Contact
#4 | Justine Ahern
Disassembled, 2020, 5'14" video & sculpture
...Watching. Following.
Left, right, left, right…
(Intermission)
Watching. Following.
Left, right, left, right…
(Intermission)
Watching. Following.
Left, right…
…and so on…
Exposing without exposing.
No speech is involved.
Nothing is defined.
Nothing is revealed.
The (sub)consciousness gets turned inside out and upside down.
They disassemble.
Justine Ahern (BE, °1995)
Contact
#4| Luth Lea Roose
The work starts from a visual observation in an everyday setting. Under these visible objects and experiences lies a fascination for the invisible. Meaning how we tend to only see the surface of an object or term, while knowing there is an underlying construction. For example, there is a white wall. The top-layer of this wall is white paint, after this first layer there is plaster and under this second layer there are bricks. Looking at the wall we only see white but we are subconsciously aware of this construction.
The work is an attempt to make these underlying layers readable.
The Echoes, for example, are made with everyday objects that are placed in a seeing device which allows the viewer to see all the different layers. This seeing device ensures that the complexity of the surface becomes visible.
About Luth Lea Roose
Geboren: 25/03/1984 te Kortrijk
Studies: Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen / Acteren
Luca School of Arts Brussels / Fine arts
Contact
instagram: luthlearoose
#5 | Miguel Escobar
This two-channel video opens up a space contained in a statue of a scared lion placed in Warandepark, in Brussels. While a camera wanders in a photogrammetry model of the statue, a voice-over describes it, identifying places and relations in a speculative manner. Features of a beast, a statue, and a mineral seem to juxtapose on the same fragile object. Although the statue remains motionless, it could be seen as transforming into something else every time the voice-over describes it differently.
About Miguel Escobar
Miguel Escobar was born in Cali, Colombia in 1992. In 2017 received his Bachelor’s in Plastic Arts at the Instituto Departamental de Bellas, in Cali, Colombia with a meritorious mention. His work has been exhibited in solo shows in Colombia and in group shows in Argentina, Russia and Belgium.
Contact
+32 493129944
maer92@yahoo.es
https://vimeo.com/miguelescobar
#6 | Molly MacLallen
Molly MacLellan makes sculptures typically shown on the wall that show combinations of
common/everyday items with abstract forms (which are created by highly processing materials). MacLellan is interested in creating her own symbols which referring inwardly rather than to an external idea. MacLellan is also interested in focusing on the formal qualities product design to subvert materials from their original purpose. Molly MacLellan is a Canadian artist who has been working and studying in Europe over the last five years. She received her BFA from The Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and has attended residencies in Iceland, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands before completing her masters at LUCA. MacLellan is currently completing a post-grad program in Nova Scotia, Canada and can be reached through email at: mollymaclellan2@gmail.com
#7 | Nienke Fransen
Thoughts on bob-haircut, 2020, wooden sculpture with video
If you feel like something, will you act like it? Do the girls at the vegetarian restaurant accidentally have their hair in short brown styles, just like the girls at the hotel wear it long and blond? Does one influence the other, and the other the one, do they both just exist, an accident, an absolute, am I tired because she is, or because we both ran a mile?
Thoughts on a bob haircut, 2020, consists of a wooden figure looking at a video.
The video starts with a segment about the 52 factorial: the amount of possibilities that can come out of a single pack of cards. After Stephen Fry has explained this idea to his talk-show guests, the guests wonder, while singing, about their uniqueness- their situation and context, and what they’ve made for themselves.
About Nienke Fransen
Nienke Fransen graduated with a master in Fine Arts in 2020 and works mostly with wood and audiovisual media.
Contact
#8 | Siebert Mispelon
Forever Primal, 2020, 11' video
A circle, a hole, a portal. A white screen lights up the space. Deep bass sounds and loud drums. The sound of an empty space. ROOM TONE. A drum within a space and a space within a drum. A shell (protection) - A wall - inside/outside. -Texture defect. A pile of drums /smashed/. A seam. Push - Pull. We are now inside. Swirl-Swirl-Swirl. A primal instinct. A system. We are now inside. (insert dust particles) - a void. We are now inside. - Cut to black.
About Siebert Mispelon
Within my practice I question the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality. The distinction between fiction and reality. I’m interested in the interrelation between inner space, physical space, virtual space & the body. The work is often fundamentally an attempt at pulling you in and rejecting you at the same time resulting in an audiovisual environment that never fully lets you immerse.
Contact
Instagram: @siebert.mispelon
#9 | Simon Gheeraert
Uppercut, 2020, oil on canvas
Simon Gheeraert, Belgian, b. 1987 | simongheeraert@hotmail.com
#10 | Thomas Sadée
The fluidity of painting
10 points about these paintings.
1.Paintings one side approach is broken.
2.Through the thin fabric of the flags the brush stroke is reproduced and breaks with its uniqueness.
3.The flags move and let light pass through them, breaking with paintings opaque definitive attitude.
4.Where flags refer with their composition to an external factor, the composition of modern paintings often refers to itself, this creates an absurd dialog.
5.The images are used as a tool for composition, not as a subject of representation. They should not be influenced by my judgement of the image. Therefore, the images are delivered by a random image generator.
6.The canvas is stripped of its frame.
7.Nothing is hidden, neither the frame nor the hanging device.
8.Instead of the unmoveable and permanent look of large paintings, these works can be rolled up and carried on the shoulder.
9.There is a game of depth, where the layering creates depth, the patterns on top creates a flatness.
10.Where the patterns and shapes can refer to the essentialist approach of the modernist, the bright almost neon colours make a mockery of their idea’s.
Contact
#WeArt