Agenda 2020 - Stefaan van Biesen

A G E N D A : 2 0 2 0 > >

 

 

 

E X H I B I T I O N S :

 

MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd] CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium ⋈ An artistic & multi-disciplinairy research ⋈ 01.07 > 11.10.2020.

[END: Empirical Nonsense Daily] Jimi Dams Envoy Enterprises . NYC USA ⋈ 05.10.2020.

 

[Verbinding / Connection] travelling educational art project ⋈ RASA Belgium 2020 > 2021.

Artists: Agnieszka Lepka (PO), Annemarie Maes (BE), Bronwyn Katz (Z-A), Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (SP/BR), Gino Rizzi (IT/BE), Jalila Essaidi (NL), Koen Vanmechelen (BE), Ledell Moe (Z-A), Lizan Freijsen (NL), Otobong Nkanga (NI/BE), Rosana Paulino (BR), Shaakira Jassat (Z-A/NL), Solanga Pessoa (BR), Stefaan van Biesen (BE), Thijs Van der Linden (BE), Tinka Pittoors (BE).

 

[Le parole, le immagini del desiderio] Group exhibition: art and artists during the Corona period ⋈ S&H De Buck Galery Ghent België ⋈ 13.09 > 30.12.2020.

[CAST] Drawings ⋈ CAS [Contemporary Art Space] Zottegem Belgium ⋈ 26.09 > 04.10.2020.

[Precious Cargo, ​Precious World 2020] Art Science Exhibits Berlin Germany. Mary Patricia Warming.

 

 

P U B L I C A T I O N S :

 

[Le parole, le immagini del desiderio] Corona project S&H De Buck Gallery Ghent Belgium 2020.

MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd] CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium ⋈ Artistic multi-disciplinairy research 2020.

 

 

P R O J E C T S :

 

[The Relocated Eye] Sound Walk September ⋈ Walk . Listen . Create [UK London].

[Flow Lines] a joint project of Deirdre McLeod University of Edinburgh [Scotland UK].

[Mountains to Oceans] Humboldt University Berlin Germany ⋈ curator: Mary Patricia Warming [G/USA].

[Earth Connections] Archive of the Art/NaturSci Movement & Art Science Exhibits Berlin Duitsland ⋈ curator: Mary Patricia Warming [G/USA].

[Fingers Don't Know What The Hand Will Do] joint project with Annelies Slabbynck 2020.

 

 

S O U N D S C A P E S :

 

[The Forjaz Variations] 4 compositions for 'caminhando à flor da pele' ⋈ Museu Nougueira da Silva, Minho University Braga ⋈ exhibition Rosario Forjaz ⋈ Portugal 2020.

[The Garden That Carries My Name] 'MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd] CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2020.

[Utopia] Made of Walking (VII) ⋈ Minho University of Guimaraes Portugal 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More info about the projects in 2020 > >

 


 

scroll to the bottom for the projects in the beginning of the year 2020 until now > >

 

 

 

 

 

 

( V ) A D E R Wall installation at Cortewalle Castle Beveren Belgium 2021.

 

 

Model of the wallinstallation (V)ADER [Father/Vein] 2021. A Spin off the exhibition Mozaïek [Mijn naam is Vijd]. CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium 01.07 > 11.10.2020. A multi disciplinairy project.

 

 

 

See pdf project (V)ADER English > >

See pdf project (V)ADER Nederlands > >

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1. > Drawings : MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd]

CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium 01.07 > 11.10.2020. A multi disciplinairy project.

 

In response to the Jan Van Eyck year in 2020 and at the invitation of CC Ter Vesten and Erfgoed Beveren, Stefaan van Biesen started in the spring of 2019 an artistic research into the figure of Joos Vijd who ordered the Ghent Altarpiece [1432] from Jan Van Eyck.

Tekst Nederlands door Johan De Vos, lees pdf > >

English text by Johan De Vos, read pdf > >

 

Apart from the historical facts and existing documents, we can only guess at the intentions and ambitions of Joos Vijd. This sometimes leads to different views and interpretations. Nevertheless, it seems somewhat plausible that Joos Vijd had a great preference for the circles from which the painters Van Eyck have extracted their knowledge and can therefore not be seen merely as the principal and financier of the Ghent Altarpiece. The fact that Philip De Goede, given the size and duration of this work, agreed to 'lend' Jan Van Eyck (who was also responsible for the glamor of the Court) to a subject like Vijd, is special and indicates a great affection towards Joos Vijd.

 

On Facebook [Dutch language] : Vijd Awa

 

 

About MOSAIC [My name is Vijd]:

 

The project / research of Stefaan van Biesen received the working title: MOSAIC [My name is Vijd]. This exhibition starts on July 1, 2020 and runs until October 11, 2020. Location: castle Cortewalle (the former residence of Joos Vijd). Appointment: online on the CC Ter Vesten website. Due to the Corona measures, the official opening will take place at a later, yet to be determined date.

 

This multidisciplinary project consists of a section of 80 drawings/notes, video, photo installations, soundscapes, texts / stories and publications: (an overview of the drawings).

 

A search for Joos Vijd: symbolism and themes in the Ghent Altarpiece are placed in a contemporary context, starting from the person of Vijd, (a descendant of a Flemish patrician family depicted on the Ghent Altarpiece, together with his wife Isabella Borluut on the outside hatch). These elements are tested against our contemporary living environment. Which connections can be made and which are still relevant and are therefore perceived as timeless? Is the time and environment in which Vijd lived still topical and tangible in our human, social and intercultural relationships?

 

This exhibition consists of different parts. 1. The drawings as a contemporary commentary > 2. An installation with photos "The Sacred Landscape" > 3. A video > 4. A music composition & soundscape.

 

 

Stefaan van Biesen is internationally known as a contemporary visual artist. In his work, the emphasis is not only on the finished image, but also on the quest that leads to this artistic result. Each image is a step in a larger study. Recurring elements in this question are religion, society and nature. In Jan Van Eyck's oeuvre he finds a related philosophical undertone that is surprisingly topical.


Stefaan van Biesen analyzes the work of the Burgundian painter on the basis of his own drawings. In doing so, he starts from contemporary photos in which figures, poses and subjects are reminiscent of the masterpiece. These images, often the posture of hands, function as an archetype when he places them in their contemporary context. He draws these elements with such an eye for detail that the result is reminiscent of medieval miniatures.


Stefaan van Biesen considers the act of drawing as a meditative experience. He concentrates on each line, marvels at the interplay and is touched when the finished image emerges from the loose lines and surfaces.


He provides each drawing with notes: ideas that arise during drawing and references to the research that leads to this result. The relationship between historical symbolism and contemporary action results in an almost mystical experience. Drawing is not only an artistic instrument, but also a skill that leads to progressive insight and has an indisputable impact on work and research. The draftsman perceives the world with greater accuracy and from multiple perspectives. The artist understands through the act of registering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2. > Photo Installation : the wide landschape > MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd]

CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium 01.07 > 11.10.2020. A multi disciplinairy project.

 

 

This installation consists of two ensembles of 16 photos, taken during walks in the municipality of Beveren [2016-2020]. A selection made from more than 150 photos that can also be seen digitally elsewhere in the exhibition.

 

These two suitcase installations link with the pictorial atmosphere that the landscapes in the Ghent Altarpiece exude. Through a popular medium, which has become an inseparable part of our contemporary digital culture, the natural world of the iconic painting is tested against our own. Or how, in a medieval context, it contains the profane, traces of the metaphysical.

 

 

The photos show themselves as filtered fragments from everyday life, a still and astonished look at a world in motion, subdued pages from a visual diary. Silent landscapes that become the subject of a melancholic world view: a feeling of endearment about what one sees, the beauty of a quiet moment.

 

The everyday that shows itself as a lived landscape of emotions and meaning, a changing metamorphosis that takes place, from one to the other. The viewer becomes the chronicler of his own mind that is mirrored in what one perceives. Camera and photographer become one in a timeless course. It is life that gives art life. It is the art that comes home to life.

 

 

View installation Cortewalle castle Beveren 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[5 Stories] publication of stories where the Ghent Altarpiece finds a place in everyday life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Garden That Carries My Name] Soundscape/Music Composition 2020.

 

Exhibition MOZAÏEK [Mijn naam is Vijd] CC Ter Vesten Beveren Belgium.

 

 

 

The CD 'The Garden That Carries My Name' available on Band Camp:

https://stefaanvanbiesen.bandcamp.com/album/the-garden-that-carries-my-name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[END: Empirical Nonsense Daily] Jimi Dams Envoy Enterprises . NYC USA ⋈ 05.10.2020.

 

'I got tired of hearing some people complain, over and over again, about the ugliness of some neighborhoods in their own city or village, but without wanting to do anything about it themselves. Because you can change the energy of a place with very small gestures and cheap things. That is why I started a new initiative with befriended artists and inhabitants: reading a space specific letter in a neglected place and leaving an in situ artwork behind. Kind of a love gesture for a place that is not looked after. The Utopia book emerged from that. A book that travels and that its owner can show in places that, due to their social, societal, aesthetic dysfunction, show a sign of commitment and compassion.'

 

Stefaan van Biesen

 

 

 

With the constant barrage of daily news reports, foreshadowing the possibility of the END of days, Empirical Nonsense will attempt to bring some inspiration and hope with “END”.

 

“Empirical Nonsense Daily”, is a project that provides daily servings of art for 365 consecutive days. As of August 1st 2020, END will bring a broad view of the arts, including disciplines such as writing, poetry, film making, performing, acting and music. Each day is dedicated to a different artist. The project comes to an end on July 31st 2021 and will be followed, a month later, by a book documenting the 365 days of END.

 

We already have some great people participating. Established artists and non-established artists such as Tom Kalin (film director of "Savage Grace"), Penny Arcade (performance artist), Chuck Nanney (visual artist), Raymond Pinto (dancer/performer), Dan Cameron (curator), Ann Magnuson (film maker and performer), Bruce LaBruce (film maker and visual artist), Gary Indiana (writer and visual artist), Dennis Cooper (writer), Amanda Lear (legend), Dirk Ivens (Musician from bands like The Klinik, Absolute Body Control and Dive), Richard Kern (photographer, film maker), Grant Worth (visual artist, film maker) and many more.

 

https://empiricalnonsense.today

Jimi Dams envoy enterprises .

NYC 212.226.4567

 

jd@envoyenterprises.com

www.envoyenterprises.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flow Lines] Deirdre McLeod University of Edinburgh Scotland Uk june 2020.

 

[Son & Heir] a reconstruction of the remains of a day in 1952,

for the Flow Lines project of Deirdre McLeod, University of Edinburgh Scotland Uk june 2020.

 

On the photo left, taken in 1952, my father is standing in a pool of water. It is a mysterious act on a Sunday afternoon in 1952, a year before I was born. I have often wondered what was the reason for this action and I got no answers. I found it interesting to follow in my father's footsteps and reconstruct this moment as a gesture of connection, and in a certain bloodline tradition.

 

Or as Gustav Mahler [1880-1911] once said: "Tradition is tending the flame, not worshiping the ashes..".

 

 

 

In human geography, flow lines record the movement of people, such as commuters or migrants, between one place and another. In physical geography, flow lines on oceanographic maps describe how ocean waters circulate around the world.

On your own, and maintaining a self-isolating distance of at least two metres from anyone nearby, make your way to a sea, or ocean, which is near you. If you live far from the sea, make your way to a nearby stream or river. A canal is also fine, as long as it eventually joins the sea.

 

Deirdre McLeod: the project is called 'Flow Lines' and is an artistic response, of sorts, to current circumstances. It aims to explore the more solitary conditions that we find ourselves in, and ways in which we might connect. Since the emergence of the Coronavirus, and particularly since lockdown, we have moved differently within public space. Time outside has become precious and, often, solitary and we are still unable to visit, and be physically close to, those with whom we do not live.

 

At the same time, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of urban public space to individuals and communities. I’m creating a set of six mini-performance pieces for individuals to do on their own. Each piece is based on gestures that I’ve observed people making or doing over the past few months here in Edinburgh.

 

https://www.artwalkporty.co.uk/2020/deirdremacleod.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Precious Cargo, ​Precious World 2020]

 

Exhibition Onboard the AVONTUUR, a Sailing Cargo Ship. ​ Trapani, Sicily October 20th - ongoing. A project of ArtScie Exhibits Berlin. Curator: Mary Patricia Warming [Berlin/USA].

 

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 Timbercoast Shipping, a brave, new company offering zero carbon footprint for transport. ​Because when people begin to connect to beautiful answers, change can occur. ​​​

 

See: https://www.artscienceexhibits.com/2020-artists-blog

 

 

Photo: 'Inscription X' Stefaan van Biesen 1993. ©Peter Maes.

 

 

Stefaan van Biesen 2020. Earth Collections, the Permanent Collection of the Art / NaturSci Movement

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 regenerate Earth's ecosystems through innovative ideas and partnerships.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Le parole, le immagini del desiderio] S&H De Buck Gallery 13.09 > 30.12.2020. Ghent Belgium 2020.

 

In the Corona times Hermine De Groeve took the initiative to make a publication together with the artists of the Galerie S&H DE BUCK: "Le parole, le immagini del desiderio".

 

 

In 2014 Simona Vermeire asked me to make some drawings for her PhD at Minho University in Braga Portugal. It was related to José Saramago's litherary oeuvre. Or how an unknown disease becomes a pandemic that disrupts our society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Relocated Eye] Sound Walk September ⋈ Walk . Listen . Create [UK London].

A subjective manual for urban walks.

 

 

The Relocated Eye is a project that encourages the walker to approach or to discover a particular place from different perspectives and points of view. It is a performative walk that you can do alone or in a group. And the idea is to move your point of view several times in one particular place that you have chosen. So it can be in a landscape or in an urban environment.

 

Your eye moves, your body takes up different positions so that you start looking at the place from different points of view and try to understand it better. Your body is an ever-changing center from which you will observe and visualize the location. And with the pleasure of really 'sensing’ the city (or natural place) and being aware of it. The city with its own urban 'body', with all its emotional and functional 'organs'. It is great to deal with a place in a creative and relational way, based on these personal observations.

 

 

Click here to read about the project The Relocated Eye > >

 

Read about: Walk . Listen . Create [walking artists] > >

 

 

 

 

 

 

[I Don't Remember Me The Rain] Soundscape Sound Walk September 2020. [Walk-Listen-Create].

 

 

 

The CD 'I Don't Remember Me The Rain' available on Band Camp:

https://stefaanvanbiesen.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-remember-me-the-rain

 

 

After a very successful Sound Walk September 2020, we’re very excited to announce this year’s shortlist for the winners of the Sound Walk September 2020 Awards. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be able to read, in more detail, the background of each of the shortlisted works, right here. Then, later this year, the SWS Advisory Board will decide on the winners and honourable mentions, taken from the shortlist.

 

The SWS Advisory Board consists of Josh Kopeček, Francesca Panetta, Julie Poitras Santos, Hamish Sewell, Duncan Speakman and Maja Thomas.

 

Without further ado, the shortlist of the Sound Walk September 2020 Awards (in alphabetical order): A different LENS (UK) Bath Workhouse Burial Ground: Walking the names (UK) > Drifting to Third Ward (US) > Exeter Sound Walks (UK) > Home Maker Sounds (UK) > I Don’t Remember Me The Rain (Belgium) > SandBox (Slovenia) > Shadow-Walks (at home) (US) > The 42 walks of Contención Island (UK) > The Ears May Travel (Germany) > The Last Eccentrics of Greenwich Village (US) > The Texture of Air (UK) > Ver de ouvir ao caminhar (Brazil)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Verbinding / Connection] Travelling educational art project RASA Belgium 2020 > 2021.

 

Artists: Agnieszka Lepka (PO), Annemarie Maes (BE), Bronwyn Katz (Z-A), Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (SP/BR), Gino Rizzi (IT/BE), Jalila Essaidi (NL), Koen Vanmechelen (BE), Ledell Moe (Z-A), Lizan Freijsen (NL), Otobong Nkanga (NI/BE), Rosana Paulino (BR), Shaakira Jassat (Z-A/NL), Solanga Pessoa (BR), Stefaan van Biesen (BE), Thijs Van der Linden (BE), Tinka Pittoors (BE).

 

 

Stefaan van Biesen invites you to for a silent walk to build the Library of Walks. You become, as the co-walker, the work of art!

 

 

Head book, 'Letters to an Orchard'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CAST] Exhibition of drawings at CAS (Contemporary Art Space) Zottegem Belgium. 26.09 > 04.10.2020.

 

 

Five hundred years ago, the British humanist and diplomat Thomas More spent several months in Antwerp. Between July and September 1515 he wrote the second part of "Utopia", his illusionary sketch of an ideal republic. In the first pages of Utopia, More tells how one day his friend Pieter Gilles introduced him to a Raphael Hythlodaeus, a Portuguese sailor and explorer, who was on one of his journeys, in search of to an ideal country, accidentally ended up on the island of Utopia.

 

The traveller's name, "Hythlodaeus," Thomas More invented himself: he put together two Greek words, hythlos, [meaning nonsense, chatter] and daiein, [to distribute].

 

Utopia. After all, every sketch of a utopian society is always a critique of existing conditions and structures. This story reflects a vision of a fictional society, which is still relevant today. Social, economic, religious, geopolitical themes are permanently relevant over time. And despite the fact that our society has evolved into a technocratic, digital structure, people, with all their desires and aspirations, have hardly changed. A yearning for an ideal like "Utopia" that remains hopelessly unattainable and that sometimes shows itself unexpectedly through its confronting shadow side: a dormant Dystopia.

 

In each of us lurks a traveler, a thinker, a citizen of the world, a restless soul called "Hythlodaeus."

 

 

Hytlodaeus ensemble: drawings & watercolor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Forjaz Variations] 4 music compositions for 'caminhando à flor da pele' 2020.

 

The Forjaz Variations by Stefaan van Biesen for the exhibition 'caminhando à flor da pele' of Rosario Forjaz [Made of Walking III at La Romieu France 2017] at Museu Noguiera da Silva, Minho University Braga 2020. Slow walks.

 

 

The CD 'The Forjaz Variations' available on Band Camp:

https://stefaanvanbiesen.bandcamp.com/album/the-forjaz-variations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Libraries as Gardens] CGeomap 2020.

 

The Library of Walks is an artistic trajectory by the Belgian artist Stefaan van Biesen since the 1990ies, elaborated with Geert Vermeire since 2003, when they undertook their first group walk together to read a forest as a library, during the Art Biennale Beeldig Hof ter Saksen in Beveren in Belgium. Their approach expanded in the years after with collaborative texts, a corpus of letters to each other, works of art and performances, continuing till today. On a parallel and convergent way, they develop the concept of archiving walks into projects that transform outdoor spaces into libraries, suggesting new ways of reading the landscape and rewriting it, but equally transforming also indoor libraries in augmented spaces, uniting sound and silence, outside and inside, the mental and the physical, knowledge and nature, and by creating local and global networks of people. Their works unfold around human connections, text and space, resulting in works of arts, site-specific interventions, locative media and creative walks engaging both with the landscape and with those walking through the landscape.

 

See website fore more info > >

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mountains to Oceans] Humboldt University Berlin. Curator: Mary Patricia Warming [Berlin/USA].

 

Presenting leading-edge exhibitions for ​Art & Nature Science Museums worldwide.

 

Dystopia [proposal for Mountains to Oceans]

 

Ever since our youth, in the late 1960s, the call for greater involvement and care for our ecosystem has been loudly heard. It was already labeled by some as naive and a form of doom thinking. It has since than become clear that this was not merely an emotional plea by some environmentalists. We now see with our own eyes, how bad things are with our oceans and mountains. Globalization and mass tourism have led to rapid pollution of mountain peaks and idyllic beaches.

 

Personally I have experienced this more and more as a sad fact. The optimism of our youth now seems to turn into a future that is doomed to drastic measures and social, societal and economic consequences. We cannot wait for this unavoidable change. Time is running out and action is required! We already start in our own environment, our personal social biotope.

 

What counts is: to promote this awareness, to make people in our own network aware of their behavior and perhaps art can be a means to that end. Hopefully yes: an instrument for change!

 

The print 'Dystopia' is a translation of my observations during projects with artists/activists in Europe. The photos were taken in several countries and the traces of the change in our ecosystem are alarming. Industrial chemical poisoning of the landscape, polluted beaches by hikers and tourists, the indifferent attitude of our consumer society: people are gradually starting to ask themselves questions. Is this a signal for change? Or does humanity learn nothing from the past?

 

Stefaan van Biesen 2020

 

Mountains to Oceans: ​the paradox exhibition 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 is good reason to bury our heads in the age old sands.

 

Alongside captivating works by a wealth of international artists, Art Science Exhibits brings nature science solutions into the conversation - such as ecosystem regeneration and clean-up - with the idea that when people begin to connect to the answers, change can occur. ​​​

 

https://www.artscienceexhibits.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

©stefaan van biesen-annemie mestdagh 09.01.2022