 |
Article |
|
I shout silently |
| |
EXTRACT FROM A TALK WITH STEFAAN VAN BIESEN. |
| |
|
| |
Stefaan van Biesen is 55,
an artist. He has great affection for the mental world and the work of the
late Joseph Beuys. He is a member of the Milena (www.themilena.com), a
‘thinktank, in which people from different countries and disciplines meet to
reflect together on the border-crossing aspects of culture, language, art,
science, ecology and health.’ Here van Biesen discusses “De Sleep” (= The
Train) and “De Ent” (= The Graft), which is about the melting together of
nature and culture. |
|
|
|
| |
Stefaan van Biesen: ‘Sometimes things happen, which are the final proof,
so to speak, that one is doing well. After I had made De Ent for the
psychiatric home in Torhout, it was decided that the building itself
should be given the same name: the Psychiatric Home De Ent. It was a
very nice present, particularly because it indicates that the people
there felt the interaction between the place itself and the work of art;
as a form of unity. When that happens, it really represents integration.
Not everybody senses it in the same way; that is normal. I often make
work that merges with nature; this was also the case in Torhout. Some
people have a problem with that, in that they find it too ephemeral. But
even that is exactly one of the purposes of art: to raise questions, and
resistance if necessary. Still, through my art I try to teach the people
mainly to look at the dialogue with the place. I find this to be a very
rich experience. |
| |
|
| |
The
work in Torhout consisted of a long broken branch, made from a
glass-like polyester and carried by a few forked metal bars. The
transparent substance gives lightness to the sculpture as a sign of
hope: the branch does not die, it contains a promise of growth, of
yearning for life. As such the work is also the symbol of the
psychiatric patient, who tries to join society again. The graft seeks
contact with the mother tree just as they are trying to join society.
|
| |
|
| |
 'de
Ent' 2005 foto: : ©Marco Cosaert
|
| |
|
| |
At
the same time I wanted to make reference to old orchards, as the
building, in my eyes. exudes an atmosphere of an ambulatory. I, myself,
chose the trees, which grow there, but of course in consultation with
the people of the home, out of respect. It is important to take specific
standpoints in life. It is also important that one seeks out underlying
arguments, in consultation with others – and by going to significant
places to show, as an artist, how we can and should interact with our
patrimony and thus also with our nature. In this way I take a standpoint.
In a silent way, this is true. I am shouting but silently.’ |
| |
|
| |
‘My
work for the local health centre De Sleep in Ghent has, in many respects,
come about in a more abstract way, simply because at that time, nothing
had yet been built. I did, of course, look at the plans and the model.
Furthermore it allowed me to constantly rethink my work during the whole
process – once again always in consultation with the architecture, the
place, the people who work there, and the people who visit the centre.
Some think that architecture actually restricts one as an artist, but
the opposite is often true; good architecture gives rather a feeling of
relief. |
| |
|
| |
De
Sleep is a meeting place within a large environment and also for many
cultures. There are a lot of sounds in the building; it is humming with
activity – and that is how I got to De Zwermer (= The Swarmer), which is
actually a combination of a bee hive and a clock, but with the sound
holes of a stringed instrument. It is important to me to use a light
material, to allow the work of art to be open. This is integration as
well, and one thing leads to another. I talked to a lot of people there
and discovered that those who work there, should first of all be able to
listen. That is how I came to the idea of the listening ears, which I
call (wh/l)is(p/t)e(r/n)ing shells, and they hang now at different
places against the wall. Finally there are the pictures of five metres
long: two graphically edited panoramas of people standing in a peculiar
bee landscape with bee hives, people and swarms of bees. This work is
mainly meant to incite, to be looked at and to be reflected upon. I have
something about bees. In my work I often refer to the world of bees; a
fascinating world with an ingenious biological system; a fragile caring
society. Every little animal is a small link in the whole, and a
necessary link, as this system protects the entire nest from disease. It
is a natural, prehistoric, self protecting organism.’ |
| |
|
| |
‘What
I am basically doing, also now in my design of the new large kitchen of
the Guislain in Ghent, is looking for maximum of integration and
dialogue with few means. You will not be surprised when I tell you that
I infinitely love the concept and force of the arte povera. I take a
place on an imaginary stage and try, through a well chosen image, to
address the other in silence, and with the hope that my art also offers
a bit of comfort to the person who is searching.’ |
| |
|
| |
Extract from ‘DE GESCHIKTE PLEK’ (= THE APPROPRIATE SPOT).
|
| |
Laurens de Keyzer |
|
|
|
Back |
|
|