Joost Elschot
Bernadette Zdrazil
Jan Tromp
Stijn Ter Braak
Brent Decraene
Ruben De Smet
Nina Marte Wilson
Emma Van Den Broeck
Guido Pupulin
Maika Garnica
IT, °1993 - Lives and works in Antwerp
My practice, more than focusing on a specific theme, is based on a methodology that uses speculative fiction as a medium to explore the world around me. I make installations, sculptures, paintings, and drawings using speculative narratives I draw from theory, fiction, cinema, and roleplaying games. These inspirations function as an imaginative framework that I adopt to tackle specific contemporary issues, such as climate change, the dichotomy of artificial and natural, and the neglect of certain parts of cities.
I imagine the urban areas as a virtual archeological site in which I can find important information for the narratives in my works. For this reason, I try to preserve in my artwork a sense of melancholy and nostalgia, as they are reminiscent of an ancient part that never actually took place. One of the concepts that has influenced my practice in this sense is unmonumentality, as described in the exhibition Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century (New Museum 2007). The show described "the present as an age of crumbling symbols and broken icons," a feeling that I often try to present in my narratives. Part of my background is connected to graffiti. Being part of the graffiti community allowed me to observe and explore the city from a totally different perspective. To experience its structures, train stations, and hidden underground networks in a manner that goes beyond the passive everyday use, allowing me to see a clear link between the city and the concept of unmonumentality.
I use the frictions and dissonances I observe in urban areas as links between the ruins of our time and the fiction I create. In more recent works, I started to connect certain issues and components, in an attempt to write a "new mythology." As can be seen in "Unknown Journeys" (VSA Festival 2019), I am combining artificial and natural findings with tropes from gaming culture, fantasy novels, and science fiction to produce new myths. This brings to life a layering of different symbols, both real and invented, which provides the viewer with multiple suggestions and creates narratives that appear uncannily familiar yet dismal.
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