I was born in 1974, on August 15th (mother’s day). Together with my parents and brother, I passed my childhood and teenage years in an old house with a big garden in a small village on the periphery of Antwerpen. At that time, this village was still surrounded with nature but today there is almost nothing left of its green surroundings. As a child I have spent lots of my time in nature, connected to the land and in close relation to animals. As a teenager, I believe around 1986, I bought my first skateboard (and many other boards to follow – even today) which functioned as a kind of multi-layered toolbox for personally exploring the urban tissues of a city and my possible relations to architecture (and culture). Through skateboarding I got deeply engaged in the local/international punk/hardcore/hiphop music scene of the late 80s - early 90s, organizing concerts, touring with bands, producing records, …with a do-it-yourself attitude. Curious as ever, I slowly started to explore other situations outside of my village, outside of Antwerpen, outside of my country, traveling elsewhere in order to experience new perspectives and to grow new ideas. I love food and I am vegetarian for more than 20 years now. I graduated from high school in 1992 with a diploma in sciences, and that same year I started chemistry studies at the University of Antwerpen – which I stopped early 1993 as I didn’t like the working mentality at this university and I also wanted to learn more about the notion of alchemy instead of mere chemistry. During Spring and Summer of 1993 I worked as a gardener and assistant-cook collecting some money in order to travel to the US. In Autumn of 1993, I subscribed into the free graphics program at the art academy in Antwerpen from which I graduated in 1997. That same year I continued my studies in fine arts at the Museum School in Boston following some film/video studies. Since 1998 I have a relationship with Helena Sidiropoulos. The years 1997-1998 formed the foundations of my artistic practice and when returning to Belgium I continued my research through residencies and post-graduate studies at various institutions, experimental academies, and artist-run spaces in Antwerpen (1998-2001), Banff (2000), Nantes (2002), Perignan (2003-2004), Istanbul (2004), Berlin (2005-2008), Interfaculty (2007-ongoing), Torino (2009) developing a collaborative/collective practice. In 2001 I founded an interdisciplinary platform called “Building Transmissions” and also a small publishing house called “Curious Releases” producing/distributing ideas rather than objects through self-organized and self-sustaining energies. I work out of a fundamental preoccupation with archives and structural processes such as data, memories, information which are often the outcome of collaboration with other artists and creative producers of all kinds, my installations, sounds, publications, texts investigate the relationships between perception and remembrance, allowing multiple interpretations to emerge. Since 2004 I have been working –together with Helena and many of our friends– on the realization of our self-built house in the northern part of Antwerpen. This forthcoming Summer we will move into this architecture which will be partly our private, personal living space; partly our individual studio space; and partly an open studio for producing/distributing works by other artists and creating collaborative experiments rethinking the economy of action. At this very moment I started a phd research project related to the archives of Louwrien Wijers questioning/reflecting upon the notion of a conversation within the artistic practice and its potential plasticity. The idea of art as a compassionate economy linking freedoms of all kinds, rendering visible irregular images so the future will be curious ever curious very curious. And, one day, I wish to find the time to further explore my interests in farming and changing my practice to a new slowness.
26.04.2010
26.04.2010
