Articles
The world of the recluse.
Stefaan van Biesen’s philosophical path.
Many will have looked at the painting “San Girolamo nello studio” by Antonello da Messina in the London National Gallery with certain amazement and questioning eyes. San Girolamo is better known as Hieronymus. The Saint is mostly represented as a hermit who lives in poor circumstances. Let’s think about the famous painting of Jeroen Bosch in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. We see the recluse who has thrown himself in front of the crucifix, only dressed in his undergarment. Behind him, a serene and most beautiful landscape unfolds, to which the hermit pays no attention.
Voluntary seclusion
Antonella da Messina pictures the recluse in his study, an open construction in which the church father withdraws. His wooden construction is part of a bigger picture, an imaginary, gothic room which could refer to a church as well as to a palazzo. Slender pillars and vistas with a view on the landscape, only meant for the viewer, not for the character who has withdrawn in that space. He has retired voluntarily in a firmly structured studio with only walls. The studio is somewhat elevated above the world, it is like a stage. The learned church father is reading a book and is surrounded by several objects. He observes the world through educational material, not through direct observation. He observes the world in which he has retired. Let’s not forget that the man is a monk and a scholar who is responsible for the Latin standard version of the bible, the Vulgate. His cardinalate was assigned posthumously, therefore the red mantle and cardinal’s hat, attributes with which he is mostly represented.
©National Gallery London, 'San Girolamo nello Studio' - Antonella da Messina
The philosophical path
Many artists, scientists and philosophers recognize themselves and their own situation in this state of retiring disposition from the world. Stefaan van Biesen shares this feeling. He wants to complete an installation from this fascinating painting. In his preparatory file he writes the following about the scholar: “The trip he makes is a mental voyage, as if he can transfer himself through thoughts to other, still unknown places. The studio is a projection of his thinking.”
Van Biesen himself studied arts but his work is mainly determined by the sense of ‘made for a certain place’. “I always start from the place”, he tells me in confidence. That is how he was invited for a solo exhibition in the Park ter Beuken in Lokeren, Belgium. For this project he started from the existing and laid-out footpath. He regards it as a philosophical path, a path, which you follow while you’re thinking on your way. You philosophise while you’re walking, you are talking to yourself. Your train of thoughts is interrupted when you meet a piece or art. His “Little house of whispers” for example, is leaning against a tree and invites you to enter and whisper. You are talking to a tree. Actually, you are talking to yourself.
'Skin' installation - Library Zwijndrecht, Belgium 2005.
A temporarily imaginary space
Stefaan van Biesen considers the park as “an imaginary space in which he is staying temporarily.” He likes to tune piece of art to the place and to integrate it in the related site. That is why it is sometimes hard to find his pieces of art, because they really become part of the environment. Yet most pieces of art clearly differ from the environment, different from nature.
Van Biesen’s work is quiet work, contemplative and urging to observation and experience. His “Wind chamber”, which he created in Zonnebeke Belgium near Ieper, is a brilliant example. It consists of a circular tube, which has been suspended from a large tree, and is made of black tulle with a height of 14 meters and a diameter of 1,80 m. The tube has an opening, which can be used as an entrance. You can retire for a while in the middle of nature and observe the place around you, looking through a black haze of tissue. You may think you are isolated, even if everyone can see you and you can see them. It is a mental space, which is formed in a sublime and poetical way, as a shaft of black rays, black light that beams through the trees.
In transit
The imaginary space is something that has been occupying him for years now. The painting of the Messina is a piece of art that repeatedly stood out. The working space of Girolamo “is an open place, it is an imaginary room which can only be closed for the eye of the other by thought. It is a place in which you are ‘inside’ as well as ‘outside’”
It is an orchestrated space, a transit zone, a place of being positioned both in and out of the world. The observer is forced into the role of peeping Tom, he can observe without participating. It is a world, which is not or cannot be his.
To step into the work
Stefaan van Biesen titles his project “skin – huid – peau – pelle”. He wants to reflet the layers that are hidden in his work. The project exists of a precise wooden reconstruction of the studio, which is represented on the painting. The reconstruction is stripped of every anecdotic style, he shows the study in three-dimensional and pure, naked form, so it can really function like that. It can entered by everyone and can be filled out one way or another or used as a mental space.
The data visible on the painting are being respected accurately, however, the completion of the non-visible parts remains. The gate on the left-hand side is being completed. The back is a different story. In this the artist is not tied, and he foresees a flexible installation with tables and videos. On the video screens shootings can be seen of some acquaintances’ and friends’ libraries. The book holds all the knowledge, and is one of the means to explore the world.
