About Schscht

Schscht is an artist collective consisting of Koosje Schmeddes (The Netherlands) and Dirk Schellekens (Belgium). Their joint studio is located in Antwerp, Belgium. Since 2020, they have been creating visual work and performances/interventions that they have already shown in various leading museums in Europe and abroad, such as BOZAR (Brussels, Belgium), Mucem (Marseille, France), Bonnefanten (Maastricht, the Netherlands), Ardhi Gallery (Nairobi, Kenia), Ilulissat Art Museum (Greenland),…

With their artworks and performances they raise questions about impermanence, vulnerability, identity and other social issues. Schscht is interested in the choices we make and the autonomy that accompanies them. 

They aim to infiltrate art in daily life, to feed us with reflection, pause, doubt and curiosity. Therefore they use a poetic, surrealistic visual language. Often presenting a razor sharp observation wrapped in subtle layers of humour.  Schscht like to show their work in spaces where people don’t expect to be confronted with art, like the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland or the jungle in Bukkit Lawang, Sumatra in Indonesia. This will increase the impact of the work and establish a direct communication between public and artwork. The provocative elements in their artwork must be understood as an invitation to reflect on conventions and accepted values in society.

Their work has much in common with surrealism, humor and absurdism. Schscht relishes, and traffics in improbable images. They create work that looks like it shouldn't exist. They often bring together domestic elements with elements and influences coming from a larger outside world. They keep returning to a confusion between image and object and the moments when these intersect.

In the past, Schmeddes and Schellekens each followed a long-term path as individual artists and showed their work in leading places such as Tate Liverpool (UK), S.M.A.K.-aan-Zee (Belgium), Museum Victoria (Australia), Vejle Museerne (Denmark), Berkeley University (USA),  Art Festival Watou (B), Noordbrabants Museum (The Netherlands), Z33 (B), WARP (B), De Warande (B), Verbeke Foundation (B), The Crystal Ship (B), KMSK Gent (B),…