Agenda 2024 > >
K L I K • H I E R • V O O R • N E D E R L A N D S > >
S U M M A R Y
E X H I B I T I O N S :
• [Fly Ways] Presentation Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, Ostend Belgium April 2024.
• [Silence is a necessary Angel] • summer park exhibition at Seniors residence Meulenberg Beveren Belgium 2024. An artistic interaction with the local inhabitants and their relationship with birds, whether philosophical, mythological, social, ecological or as a caring gesture of comfort.
• [Letters to an Orchard] • presentation of letters & performance 1969-1997 • CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2024 • Curated by Caroline Van de Manacker.
• [Aktiva 2024] Reunion Memorial Exhibition • Warp Art Platform • August Sint-NIklaas 2024.
• [Zoals De Zwarte Moerbei / Like The Black Mulberry Tree] • Memorial Trees • Comfort Trees] vzw Stoff Sint-Niklaas [Johan De Vos], CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2024.
• [Precious Cargo, Precious World] Art Science Exhibits • Mary Patricia Warming Berlin • University of Maine in Farmington USA 2023.
Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder •
S O U N D S C A P E S :
[Palanca, The Passing] music composition • series of walks in the area of Palanca (Venice Giudecca).
P R I N T S • O N • P A P E R :
[My Daily Longings] • Limited edition of prints on paper [Biotop paper A3] 2022-2023.
A R T I S T I C • R E S E A R C H :
[Oratio De Hominis Dignitate] • Drawings & visions • an artistic research about the human condition 2023.
[The Veronica Suite] • contemporary nomad stories based on the painting of Robert Campin 2023.
P R O J E C T S :
[Art of Connection] • artists in Europe on a project about connections in a more than human world. 2024.
[Earth Connections] • Archive of Art/NaturSci Movement & Art Science Exhibits • Berlin Germany.
[Like the black Mulberry Tree • vzw Stoff Sint-Niklaas [Johan De Vos], Ter Vesten Beveren • 2023-2024.
E N G A G E M E N T S :
• Co-founder and member of the Milena principle • international independent art platform.
• Founding Member of the Art/NaturSci Movement • international art & ecology project.
• Member of ArtScie Exhibits community Berlin Germany Humboldt University • Mary Patricia Warming (USA).
• Menber of the Grand Jury for the Sound Walk September Awards of walk · listen · create (WLC) 2024.
A R C H I V E • E S T A T E :
• The Private Foundation Van Biesen-Mestdagh • [Estate] 2005-2023.
• the Milena Principle • independent, international art platform • [Estate] 2000-2023.
• WIT Urban-Team : action group • art interventions • [Estate] 2010-2014.
R E P R E S E N T E D B Y :
• the Milena principle • independed international art platform.
• Art/NaturSci Movement • international art community & ecology project Berlin & Maine USA.
• Gallery Ysebaert • Maenhoutstraat 60, 9830 Sint-Martens-Latem Belgium.
• Gallery S & H De Buck • Zuidstationsstraat 25 9000 Ghent Belgium.
See Agenda 2023 > > >
Info about the projects in 2024 > >
• [Fly Ways] Presentation Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, Ostend Belgium April 2024.
Fly Ways, is an artistic interpretation by Stefaan van Biesen, started in the early 1990s and aims to make aesthetic and scientific inconsistent in connection with flight patterns, produced by insects (bees, dragonflies between water, earth and air), visible in a multidisciplinary way (a polyvalent art installation including site intervention specifics, video, soundscapes, drawings and prints), integrating biogeometry, cymatics and promenadology.
In fact, van Biesen wants to register the observational drawing from the left to the observational, the recording of natural phenomena in our safe world, but through the eyes of the artist. It fails as a poetic gesture, looking with wonder at the world invisible to us.
L A N D S C A P E / M I N D S C A P E [version II ] [ 1 9 9 4 - 2 0 1 9 ] .
Landscape on my wallking shoes. [acqrylic paint, wax, propolis, photographs on paper].
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[Equilibrium] Palazzo Albrizi Bienale of Venice 01.06>31.08.2019
• [ S I L E N C E . I S . A . N E C E S S A R Y . A N G E L ] •
summer park exhibition at Seniors residence Meulenberg Beveren Belgium 2024.
An artistic interaction with the local inhabitants and their relationship with birds, whether philosophical, mythological, social, ecological or as a caring gesture of comfort.
For about ten years, Stefaan van Biesen started a conversation with a number of residents of the Meulenberg senior residence in Beveren, Belgium. A lively conversation about literature and social isolation arose with the Flemish actress who has become blind, Marthe De Wachter.
From these conversations the idea arose to use this conversation material for a new artistic project, based on an ongoing dialogue with other residents who were fascinated by the natural world of birds and their literary enthusiasm. This resulted in a series of new works, installations, that also function as a warm and sometimes confrontational conversation process between artist and residents of Meulenberg. The title of the project: 'Silence is a necessary Angel', points to the impending human transience and the natural world surrounding us. It is based on a quote from a deceased Spanish fellow artist: Tres.
• [ A R T . O F . C O N N E C T I O N ] • T O . B E . O N E •
Artists in Europe on a project about connections in a more than human world.
Collecting ideas about what connection is for people around the world and creating a focus group to give input on a toolkit for artists for collective use by interested artists and cultural professionals. Contributors are invited to lead and/or participate in events and workshops about connection.
Some examples : https://nooneforgotten.eu/videos/
• [ L E T T E R S . T O . A N . O R C H A R D ] • Presentation of a performance 1969-1997 •
CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2024 • Curated by Caroline Van de Manacker.
'Monologue of a plein-airist' Stef Van Bellingen 1997.
In an epistolary novel, the letters are addressed to a fictitious person, who acts as a sounding board for the writer. In this case, the artist has chosen a tree in a park in Heusden-Zolder as the addressee. This tree has become the imaginary mirror of his thoughts. Yet it remains difficult to breach the confidentiality of the mail because the outpourings from the monologue are authentical. For the artist, the tree becomes a canal so that his own thoughts can surface and take shape in words and images. He reaches a sort of inner prospecting, a kind of esthetical prayer wherein he tries to define his place in the reality that surrounds him. During the childhood of the “tree-ful of letters”, more than one hundred growth rings ago, artists really started to observe nature. They didn‟t want to work according to the existing templates, and they started examining the sensation of light in 'plein air'. The subjectivity that comes with looking at nature in progress led to a revolution in Art. The accidental and whimsical play of light made art acquire a sketchy character in the end. Because the emphasis lay on the impression of the environment, the own instinctive looking and the personal viewpoint were accentuated. This is the way in which Stefaan van Biesen looks at the “human aviary” in which we live. To use the words of the artist, he “tries to stand up crippled as wood can be”, but with a certain amount of breathing space, somewhat away from the woods. “Just disagree with me for once”, he asks the tree, but the latter chooses for a deaf camouflage, so that the question is echoed back. In the dying reverberation, you only seem to hear “il faut faire sa propre vie”.
The same place 6 months later •
The same place in 2020 •
• [ A K T I V A 2 0 2 4 ] Art Students 1975-1985 Exhibition • Warp Art Platform • August Sint-NIklaas 2024.
Artists: Nicole Bauwens • Marc De Blieck • Robert De Keersmaecker • Dan Dhaen • Luc Dhanis • Frans Heirbaut • Hilde Lisaerde • Toon Saerens • Stefaan Van Biesen • Marilou Van Lierop • Jan Van Raemdonck •
The student association Aktiva was active from 1975 to 1985. The initiative came from artist Jan Van Raemdonck and Arts Platform WARP with the intention of offering a platform to the (revolting) art students of the academy in Sint-Niklaas around Aktiva. The summer exhibition will take place from early August to mid-September at WARP in the former home of Jan Buytaert. Younger artists will also set up an exhibition in exhibition spaces at the back, creating a dialogue between two generations.
• [ L I K E . T H E . B L A C K . M U L B E R R Y ] • B E V E R E N •
A social project Beveren • Sint-Niklaas Belgium 2024.
A portabel museum box [10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm].
Johan De Vos (writer):
"It was wonderful to experience that moment. The mulberry in the Brouwershof park on Hazewindstraat automatically takes on the allure of a memorial tree, because it is what it is. Rather old, a little crooked, with ailments like those of aged men, but still full of life. It is surrounded by social housing, the Turkish mosque and the still standing tower of the "standing seesaw" in Pastoor De Meerleerstraat. We then know that Christiane Thijs (1943-1988 asbestos victim) still knew that tree. It is the tree of the hope, life and beauty. Thanks to Stefaan Van Biesen, who reads one of his 'letters to trees' standing by that tree".
Koen Van Synghel (architect and critic): aaaagh, the Mulberry.
Tree Cult in Turkisch Culture and Mulberry Tree
"Determination of the elements which belong to the nature and the transference of various motifs to future generations are important for the Turks for preserving cultural values. One of the elements in the center of life is tree which is as essential as water, air, soil from the occurrence of the universe. First of all, tree represents the existence, the life, vitality and fertility. Many different roles are given to tree in Turkish and World cultures in history. In the first periods of ancient Turks, the sanctity which is attributed to various natural elements and to tree among them is in the way of praying to it. In that period, binding to the various natural elements in a religious-mystical sense brought about “cults”
One of the trees that sanctity is attributed to in tree cult is mulberry tree. Mulberry tree which is called the spirit of the house is also the symbol of the peace of house, future and abundance. In Turkish traditional structure, before laying the foundation of the house, planting of fruit trees around has been given priority. Planting of mulberry tree whose edge is burned and which is threw by Ahmet Yesevi in Velayetname of Haci Bektas Veli in front of Dergah of Haci Bektas Veli and making wish by tying cloth to the boughs of mulberry tree gives sanctity to the tree. This issue has especially gained importance in Alevi Bektashi tradition and has survived with various rituals until today.”
• [ S E C R E T E N ] • Science >< Poetry... 1990-2024.
Drawings, a tool for learning • to perceive the natural world more accurately, remember facts better. To understand it from a new perspective. As a tool for seeing and to understand it better.
Drawings [50 cm x 65 cm]. A series of drawings since 1990. Paper: Hollands Van Gelder.
[download here pdf file of these drawings].
• [ M Y . D A I L Y . L O N G I N G S ] • Limited edition of prints on paper • Biotop paper A3 •
• [ T H E . V I E W I N G . R O O M ] Earth Collections • is now open for private showings in the home of Mary Patricia Warming [Berlin/USA, curator of ArtScie Exhibits Community Berlin - Humboldt University].
With the kind help of artist/filmmaker Alisi Telengut, her home has been filled with art and redesigned. The art works are either on display or "at the ready" to show to
Stefaan van Biesen 2020. Earth Collections, the Permanent Collection of the Art / NaturSci Movement
Time is pressing • In over 4.5 billion years of geological time, Earth’s carbon cycle has suffered few extremes like today's. We and our fellow species are in trouble - here and now. The immediacy of the effects of weather changes, humankind’s degradation of the forests and oceans, and the intimacy of the effects on us, is stunning. And the driving force for the determined action of many to meet these challenges head on. And so, Art Science Exhibits Berlin has developed the most solution based partnership possible - with
Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder •
About: Set in motion by international artist mp Warming, Art Science Exhibits Berlin is an independent enterprise created, and consistently recreated, by artists and scientists. The exhibitions and public programs we present work to greater the sphere of ArtSci conversation - towards positivity and solutions. Our mission for the future of nature-kind is to help
Future: Soon we will travel the Mediterranean for our first launch of Earth Collections, the Permanent Collection of the Art/NaturSci Movement. The collection will be a part of AVONTUUR's Manifest, which in turn will become a part of Earth Collections' archive. This Manifest, and our solution based exhibitions on Climate Change and Ecosystem Regeneration, is our Manifesto. With Timbercoast's AVONTUUR, we hope to influence a limit to the vast carbon footprint and pollution caused by shipping worldwide. Together we are working towards sailing the Adriatic into the 2022 Venice Biennale.
