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Sanctuaries / approaching silence, galerie S & H De Buck - Stefaan van Biesen
Sanctuaries are nature reserves where one cannot make any noise. Silence is a concept, which everybody in this modern society knows, but only seldom really experiences. That Stefaan Van Biesen tries to create such an area in a gallery is therefore remarkable. Then a gallery is a place where art is exhibited and thus a cultural space by definition. Van Biesen however tries to abolish the age-old contradiction between nature and culture by bringing the two concepts in harmony.
Van Biesen is a landscape artist. This does not mean that he makes a sculpture to have it put in some or other public park or lawn or passes his days, painting idyllic nature sights. No, the landscape artist works with the landscape. He integrates nature in his art or communicates with nature by means of his art.
Stefaan Van Biesen exhibits charcoal drawings and some three-dimensional works in Gallery S&H De Buck until 30th October (2004). We often see the artist‘s sculptures back in his drawings, such as the ‘Gedachtenvanger II’ (= ‘Catcher of thoughts II’), a round spherical shape with a zinc funnel. Talking about pure poetry! This instinctive aspect can be found in most drawings. A jam pot with the word ‘souvenir’ above it refers to smells, which are often connected with memories. These are evoked again every time such a smell passes our nostril. But nature also remains the leading actor in his drawings. Birds, rabbits, flowers, etc., although put on paper in a simple way, always refer to something deeper. Still those works are always playful and never remain heavy on the stomach. Thanks to their high poetic content they are rather like butterflies in the stomach: a feeling of happiness and emotion. That Van Biesen is a talented author as well does not surprise us. Finally - with our sweet teeth - we still mention a chocolate sculpture representing the artist himself. He is crawling on all fours on a road, which is indefinable. The artist is an eternal traveller in his own landscape, a human being crawling alone through his world. Melancholy through and through!
Stefaan Van Biesen shows in gallery S&H De Buck a side, which the public possibly did not really know yet. Still the drawings breathe the same poetry as his landscape art. They clearly follow the same line, but not in a boring way. We certainly did not have any problems with a déjà vu and rather let ourselves be silenced.
