Duo exhibition Still . trace, AYNITL (Croxhapox) Ghent 19-28/04/2024

Colette Broeckaert and I had met on several occasions in the past but I hadn't seen her nor works of her for a couple of years. We briefly talked through our plans for the scheduled duo exhibit some weeks before the scheduled opening. When we started building up some days before the 19th of April, unpacking the photographs, paintings, drawings and objects we both brought along, we quickly discovered many echoes and resonances and without too much hesitation an alignation of the selected works took place, not keeping each to our sides but letting our conjoint pieces alternate through the double exhibition space run by Vana. Not only this fluid interaction seemed to be very fruitful as a factual feedback on works I developed over the last year (see Seven Sins, Reparative Research, Studio Accrochage & Reductions). I also came to realize, as became even more clear on the opening night, that people would be interpelled by the 'mystery' shape repeated through several works exposed: for some a vase, for others some kind of a sound speaker, a mincer or an anvil. What I especially retained of this process exhibition is the tentative and progressive set-up as well as the idea to propose aesthetic forms that work as semi-abstract ideas: sufficiently figurative without being clearly recognizable or univoquely defineable and 'repeated' throughout different versions or 'avatars'.

Academic research & education