My work moves at the intersection between performance and visual arts. It is a research-driven practice that, independent of any predetermined expectation, ambition or final product, continuously proliferates in unexpected directions. This proliferation is probably peculiar to the subject that occupies me since many years : the wondrous relationship between the kingdom of plants and Homo sapiens.
By studying plants, I try to unravel the ideologies that are underlying the concept of ‘nature’. My work focuses on how ‘nature’ is contaminated with morality and how the concept of ‘pure nature’ is hijacked today to justify certain acts of violence. In the name of ‘pure nature’ consensual same- sex conduct and certain gender expressions are condemned and racial capitalism keeps on being expanded.
How to re-think our relation to nature? My ally in this activist practice, my biggest inspiration, my partner in dialogue is popular media : How can plant-horror movies such as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (P.Kaufman), comic books as Black Orchid (DC Comics) and short stories as The Fruit of My Woman (Han Kang) help to find new narratives? And how can they depict a sensual relationship between humans and nature averse to from categorization and fixed patterns of power?
During this process, I embody and identify myself as a Sick Detective, a hybrid shape-shifting persona and tool for research, inspired by my favourite cartoon character The SwampThing (DCComics), an activist for The Green.
From this framework of ideas, my work grows, without adhering to disciplines. I never know in which form my work will land. Every context and set of ideas calls for a mix of different media : lecture-performance, drawing, map-making, embroidery, augmented reality apps/digital arts, ceramics, workshops, teaching, …. I listen to the process and allow it to guide me.
Listen here : Interview on institutional critique in my work in the frame of ‘The aesthetics of the Political’ by Samah Hijawi.
I hold the title of master in Pedagogical Sciences at KULeuven and was later awarded a master’s degree in Audiovisual Arts by the LUCA School of Arts Brussels. Since 2013 I have been associated with a.pass as mentor, researcher, and collaborator. For 2 years I teached at Erg (Ecole de Recherche et Graphique) in the atelier of performance and was a mentor in the atelier of animation. I am part of the artistic coordination at wpZimmer Antwerp and I’m an active member of State of the Arts.
