Agenda 2024 > >
K L I K • H I E R • V O O R • N E D E R L A N D S > >
S U M M A R Y
E X H I B I T I O N S :
• [Fly Ways] Project presentation Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, Ostend Belgium. Galery weekend 06.04 > 21.04.2024.
• [Silence is a necessary Angel] • summer park exhibition at Seniors residence Meulenberg Beveren Belgium 01.05>22.09.2024. An artistic interaction with the local inhabitants and their relationship with birds, whether philosophical, mythological, social, ecological or as a caring gesture of comfort. Belgium 2024-2025.
• [Aktiva 2024] Group show • WARP Art Platform • August Sint-Niklaas Belgium, 10.08 > 08.09.2024.
Aktiva: Nicole Bauwens • Marc De Blieck • Robert De Keersmaecker • Dan Dhaen • Frans Heirbaut • Hilde Lisaerde • Toon Saerens • Stefaan Van Biesen • Marilou Van Lierop • Jan Van Raemdonck •
Passiva: Merel Conaert • Thomas Janssens • Kaylan Saro • Femke Ruymbeek • Charlot Vael • Osaratin Kefayetou • Alexia Nzinga •
• [Letters to an Orchard] • presentation of letters & performance 1969-1997 • CC Ter Vesten Beveren 02.09 > 02.12.2024 • Curated by Caroline Van de Manacker 2024.
E A R T H . C O N N E C T I O N S :
Mary Patricia Warming : Archive of Art/NaturSci Movement & Art Science Exhibits • Berlin Germany & USA 2024.
• Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder • 2024.
P R O J E C T S :
• [Like the Black Mulberry Tree • Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei] • a social art project about memorial trees & asbestos victims ] • vzw Stoff Sint-Niklaas [Johan De Vos], CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2024.
• [Art of Connection] • artists in Europe on a project about connections in a more than human world. 2024.
S O U N D S C A P E S :
• [Stroomstaarten] music compositions for a perfomance by Aleidis Durnez - “The Odyssey of the Swallow,” in the Heritage Chapel Belle Godshuis, Rijselstraat 38, Ypres Belgium 23.05.2024 (from 10 am to 5 pm).
E D U C A T I O N :
• [Like the Black Mulberry Tree ] : Educational school project on trees, memories, asbestos issues and letters. Collaboration with the library, CC Ter Vesten, Stoff vzw and several artistic, social partners. Beveren 2024-2025.
P R I N T S • O N • P A P E R :
• [My Daily Longings] • Limited edition of prints on paper [Biotop paper A3] 2022-2023.
A R T I S T I C • R E S E A R C H :
• [Oratio De Hominis Dignitate] • Drawings & visions • an artistic research about the human condition 2024.
• [The Veronica Suite] • contemporary nomad stories based on the painting of Robert Campin [1378-1444] 2024.
P U B L I C A T I O N S:
• [WAAHZ] publication: magazine article about the arts trail of Stefaan van Biesen.
E N G A G E M E N T S :
• Co-founder and member of the Milena principle • international independent art platform 2000-2024.
• Founding Member of the Art/NaturSci Movement • international art & ecology project 2019-2024.
• Member of ArtScie Exhibits community Berlin Germany Humboldt University • Mary Patricia Warming (USA).
• Member of the Grand Jury for the Sound Walk September Awards of walk · listen · create (WLC) 2024.
A R C H I V E • E S T A T E :
• The Private Foundation Van Biesen-Mestdagh • [Estate] 2005-2023.
• the Milena Principle • independent, international art platform • [Estate] 2000-2023.
• WIT Urban-Team : action group • art interventions • [Estate] 2010-2014.
R E P R E S E N T E D B Y :
• the Milena principle • independed international art platform. (Since 2003).
• Art/NaturSci Movement • international art community & ecology project Berlin.
• Gallery Ysebaert • Maenhoutstraat 60, 9830 Sint-Martens-Latem Belgium.
• Gallery S & H De Buck • Zuidstationsstraat 25 9000 Ghent Belgium.
W I K I P E D I A :
• research/publishing Wikipedia pages on deceased or still active artists who have made significant contributions to the world of the arts, both pedagogically and for their artistic legacy.
Info about the projects in 2024 > >
• [ F L Y . W A Y S ] Project presentation Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, Ostend Belgium 06.04 > 21.04.2024.
This exhibition is an overview of the different phases of the Fly Ways project and how it is has evolved from its inception in 1994.
'Flyways,' is an artistic interpretation to record aesthetic and scientific meanings of patterns created by the flight of insects, such as bees. Later, these flight notes prompt the realization of a multimedia art installation, including site-specific interventions, where video, soundscapes, drawings and prints are integrated.
'Recording the flight routes of insects on paper, you are an observant observer who knows that he will not make an accurate record because of the speed and seeming unpredictability of the animal's route. The registration seems an erratic event until you recognize a structure in their flight. Lines written in the thin layers of air'
Stefaan van Biesen thus returns to the roots of human research, triggered by an intellectual curiosity and with a poetic approach. The fascination to record natural phenomena around him. Perhaps more than ever, art is the ultimate hothouse for dreams and utopian desires, for finding a personal language to connect with our natural environment as a catalyst for human questioning rooted in nature and the world around us. Art has become a field of wonder.
Some of the works shown in Studio 221 were present at "Art and Science Exhibits" Humboldt-Universität & Campus Nord Branch Library, Berlin Germany 2018 (curator: Mary Patricia Warming, USA) and in "Equilibrium" at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello during the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Photo: Landscape/Mindscape. Location: library Humboldt-Universität & Berlin's Thaer-Institut & Campus Nord Branch Library 2019.
In fact, van Biesen wants to register the observational drawing from the left to the observational, the recording of natural phenomena in our safe world, but through the eyes of the artist. It fails as a poetic gesture, looking with wonder at the world invisible to us.
• [ S I L E N C E . I S . A . N E C E S S A R Y . A N G E L ] •
Summer park exhibition at Seniors residence Meulenberg Beveren Belgium 01.05 > 22.09.2024.
Free entrance 10 to 18 hours.
An artistic interaction with the local inhabitants and their relationship with birds, whether philosophical, mythological, social, ecological or as a caring gesture of comfort.
In 2014, Stefaan van Biesen started conversations with the actress Martha Dewachter (1919-2016), resident of Seniorenresidentie Meulenberg in Beveren. Because of her impending blindness, she was very focused on the voice. Thus followed conversations about literature and art, about 'le condition humaine', the burden of aging, isolation, loneliness, alienation, nostalgia and melancholy. The pleasure she found in poetry, the exchange of texts, thoughts and conceptions, was essential to her. In early October 2016, she stepped out of life through euthanasia. Proud but tired of depending on others for everything.
With her passing, new conversations with other residents of Meulenberg began. A theme that kept recurring was their relationship with the natural world. The presence of several native birds observed silently in the adjacent park, their behavior and peculiarities. A passion also shared by Stefaan van Biesen. From these conversations, a number of works were created that will be shown in the summer of 2024. They are an homage to the fine conversationalists, to the warm, lively, sometimes confrontational conversations that led to the realization of the installations: 'Het Betoog,' 'Die Meistersinger,' 'Hemellichamen,' 'Martha's Letter,' 'Vederkleed,' 'Valeriaan (1998).'
The title of the exhibition "Silence is a necessary Angel" is a tribute to and quote from Stefaan's Spanish colleague and sound artist TRES Silencio, who also died unexpectedly in 2016.
During the genesis of some of the works for the Meulenberg Project, (where conversations were the inspiration), there are works, notes or drawings that are not shown in the exhibition. This drawing/study is one of them. It was the very first translation of one of the first conversations, “Silence is a necessary Angel.
A tribute to and quote from Stefaan's Spanish colleague and sound artist TRES Silencio, who also passed away unexpectedly in 2016. Drawing, ink on paper. 50 cm x 40 cm.
Valeriaan 2024. Photo Martine Van Landeghem
S C H O O L . S T U D E N T S & A R T I S T . T A L K . 2 0 2 4 :
• [ S T R O O M S T A A R T E N ] music compositions for a perfomance by Aleidis Durnez - “The Odyssey of the Swallow,” in the Heritage Chapel Belle Godshuis, Rijselstraat 38, Ypres Belgium 23.05.2024 from 10 am to 5 pm.
Soundtracks with the migration of swallows and the concept of migration as a metaphor for people fleeing violence. Aleidis Durnez is an artist and psychologist with a great interest in the world of swallows and their social significance as wanderers between continents.
01. Phase I : Circles [Aleidis Dialogue 1] 10:20 • 02. Phase II : (F)light [Aleidis Dialogue 2] 13:03 • 03. Phase III : Joy Sequence [Crossroads] 07:24 • 04. Phase IV : Breeding Grounds [The Return] 13:31 • 05. Phase V : A Swallow [Aleidis] 08:38 • 06. Phase I : Homeless [instrumental reprise] 10:20 • 07. Phase II : (F)light [instrumental reprise] 13:03.
Full CD available on Band Camp:
https://stefaanvanbiesen.bandcamp.com/album/stroomstaarten
• [WAAHZ] publication: magazine about the arts trail of Stefaan van Biesen.
From tree walks to peaceful guerrilla art, multi-disciplinary artist Stefaan van Biesen brings people closer together through artistic, social projects. He is rebellious, surprising and cannot be pigeonholed. And he loves trees. Although van Biesen's art projects have caused a furore abroad in recent years, his roots are deeply rooted in the soil of Waasland. Here he was hazed, planted seeds and grew into a unique artist.
• [ A R T . O F . C O N N E C T I O N ] • T O . B E . O N E •
Artists in Europe on a project about connections in a more than human world.
Collecting ideas about what connection is for people around the world and creating a focus group to give input on a toolkit for artists for collective use by interested artists and cultural professionals. Contributors are invited to lead and/or participate in events and workshops about connection.
Some examples : https://nooneforgotten.eu/videos/
• [ A K T I V A . 2 0 2 4 ] Art Students 1975-1985 Exhibition • WARP Art Platform • August Sint-NIklaas 2024.
10.08 > 08.09.2024: Sat, Sun from 1pm to 6pm and on Tuesday evenings from 6pm to 11pm.
The student association Aktiva of the Academy of Sint-Niklaas (SASK), was active from 1975 to 1985. The initiative came from artist Jan Van Raemdonck and arts platform WARP. It is an overview of the then revolving art students, who are still artistically active today.
The summer exhibition will take place at WARP's arts center in the former home of artist and patron Jan Buytaert with whom several participants were friends.
Younger artists will also display their work in exhibition spaces at the back areas.
In September 1977, a legendary exhibition took place in Sint-Niklaas at Gallery Waumans in the O.L.Vrouwstraat 24. Aktiva a student association with a rebellious touch founded in the local Academy of Fine Arts, created a furor there under the watchful eye of mentor and friend André Roelant teacher of painting and graphics. These and many other activities made history and produced artists who matter. Almost half a century later, several of them are invited by Jan Van Raemdonck for an exhibition at WARP. They will dialogue with fairly recent work with work by young artists invited by WARP curator Stef Van Bellingen.
Aktiva: Nicole Bauwens • Marc De Blieck • Robert De Keersmaecker • Dan Dhaen • Frans Heirbaut • Hilde Lisaerde • Toon Saerens • Stefaan Van Biesen • Marilou Van Lierop • Jan Van Raemdonck •
Passiva: Merel Conaert • Thomas Janssens • Kaylan Saro • Femke Ruymbeek • Charlot Vael • Osaratin Kefayetou • Alexia Nzinga •
Vernissage: Sat. Aug. 10: 4-6 p.m.
Open: Aug. 11 through Sept. 8, 2024: every Sat. + Sun: 2-5 p.m.
Location: WARP: Apostelstraat 20, 9100 Sint-Niklaas
Entrance: free
• [ L E T T E R S . T O . A N . O R C H A R D ] • Presentation of an artistic action in 1996-1997 •
CC Ter Vesten Beveren 02.09 > 02.12.2024 • Curated by Caroline Van de Manacker.
In the book 'Nature Morte? : art, nature & biotope' (Ludion 1995) by art historian Johan Pas, the author provides an overview of Belgian artists working with the natural environment. Pas rightly states in this book that the image we have of nature has largely been determined by artists: "when photography did not yet exist, the colored postcard or the first watercolor was an important source of information about the image of a given landscape. While art initially still mirrored nature, that nature gradually began to conform to art."
This book shows the evolution to a number of performances and works by Stefaan van Biesen, intended as an artistic "conversation" with nature-culture. This led to several multidisciplinary projects, including "Letters to a Tree" (1996-1997).
On display in the foyer of Ter Vesten is the cycle "Letters to an Orchard" (1996). The artist places himself in a majestic orchard in Melsele. In a cycle of three panoramic sequences you can read the evolution of the place or how the place undergoes its fate over a period of 2 years. The silence, the letter, the impotence and the hushed conversation, are an artistic homage to what threatens to disappear. An empathetic act, a social aspect about how we interact with our environment. Or how nature/culture relate in a society where this "green opulence" is under pressure. What questions and answers pose themselves in a climatically changing world?
The same place 6 months later •
The same place in 2020 •
'Monologue of a plein-airist' Stef Van Bellingen 1997.
In an epistolary novel, the letters are addressed to a fictitious person, who acts as a sounding board for the writer. In this case, the artist has chosen a tree in a park in Heusden-Zolder as the addressee. This tree has become the imaginary mirror of his thoughts. Yet it remains difficult to breach the confidentiality of the mail because the outpourings from the monologue are authentical. For the artist, the tree becomes a canal so that his own thoughts can surface and take shape in words and images. He reaches a sort of inner prospecting, a kind of esthetical prayer wherein he tries to define his place in the reality that surrounds him. During the childhood of the “tree-ful of letters”, more than one hundred growth rings ago, artists really started to observe nature. They didn‟t want to work according to the existing templates, and they started examining the sensation of light in 'plein air'. The subjectivity that comes with looking at nature in progress led to a revolution in Art. The accidental and whimsical play of light made art acquire a sketchy character in the end. Because the emphasis lay on the impression of the environment, the own instinctive looking and the personal viewpoint were accentuated. This is the way in which Stefaan van Biesen looks at the “human aviary” in which we live. To use the words of the artist, he “tries to stand up crippled as wood can be”, but with a certain amount of breathing space, somewhat away from the woods. “Just disagree with me for once”, he asks the tree, but the latter chooses for a deaf camouflage, so that the question is echoed back. In the dying reverberation, you only seem to hear “il faut faire sa propre vie”.
• [ L I K E . T H E . B L A C K . M U L B E R R Y ] • Beveren Belgium 2024-2025 •
A social art project about memorial trees & asbestos victims ] •
vzw Stoff Sint-Niklaas [Johan De Vos], CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2024.
Johan De Vos (writer): "It was wonderful to experience that moment. The mulberry in the Brouwershof park on Hazewindstraat automatically takes on the allure of a memorial tree, because it is what it is. Rather old, a little crooked, with ailments like those of aged men, but still full of life. It is surrounded by social housing, the Turkish mosque and the still standing tower of the "standing seesaw" in Pastoor De Meerleerstraat. We then know that Christiane Thijs (1943-1988 asbestos victim) still knew that tree. It is the tree of the hope, life and beauty. Thanks to Stefaan Van Biesen, who reads one of his 'letters to trees' standing by that tree".
logo ©Anna-Maria Mestdagh & Stefaan van Biesen 2024
This participation project already intends to locate special commemorative trees and save them from disappearing. The black mulberry is until now a special tree associated with the numerous asbestos victims in the city of Sint-Niklaas, but asbestos is still daily making victims in the region between the port of Antwerp and inland. This due to the years of cover-up (inhumane monetary gain), in connection with the harmful deadly effects (lung cancer), of this product to the thousands of factory workers in the local asbestos industry. It wasn't ignorance, it was a crime in the name of economy and private wealth.
Through the efforts of many bystanders, this mulberry tree is now a screened natural monument and on September 22, 2024, it will officially become a memorial tree for the asbestos victims. And we are doing this together.
It started in November 2023 with a new "letter to a tree" and it was an artistic, social-ecological stain that spontaneously expanded. We are developing this connecting project in collaboration with many local partners: artists, experts, doctors, writers and stakeholders.
After quite a few group meetings, worked out a broad, educational and promising school program (also collaborations with the libraries), where we could of course draw on previous Milena principle ideas of our own.
Public project: 'Like the black mulberry'. A Tree as a memorial monument.
This participation project already intends to locate special commemorative trees and save them from disappearing. The black mulberry is until now a special tree associated with the numerous asbestos victims in the city of Sint-Niklaas, but asbestos is still daily making victims in the region between the port of Antwerp and inland. This due to the years of cover-up (inhumane monetary gain), in connection with the harmful deadly effects (lung cancer), of this product to the thousands of factory workers in the local asbestos industry. It wasn't ignorance, it was a crime in the name of economy and private wealth.
Through the efforts of many bystanders, this mulberry tree is now a screened natural monument and on September 22, 2024, it will officially become a memorial tree for the asbestos victims. And we are doing this together.
A portabel museum box [10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm].
The plan:
From 22/09/24 to 15/06/2025 we organize at least 20 group visits to the Black Mulberry and a roundtable discussion. In the village of Temse we foresee at least two group visits to a tree, with a walk on the Scheldt and a discussion afterwards,
In the village of Beveren, where we live, there are four tree walks, with speakers reading a letter to or near a tree, each time with a discussion afterwards.
In the theater Culture Centre Ter Vesten, there is a colloquium on the worldwide use of trees as monuments.
This will be organized by us, writer Johan De Vos and Koen Van Synghel
The weekend of 14/6/2025 there is a final event in the city of Sint-Niklaas with the precipitation of the project and the presentation of the High Committee of Care for the Black Mulberry for the long term.
Anyway, the project takes shape through the work of visual artists, theater, music and publications of all kinds.
Drawing [ink on paper] Stefaan van Biesen: first tree conversation 2023
Purpose:
• To draw attention to the countless number of asbestos victims, historically in the past, global and still now.
• Making the asbestos problem negotiable
• Finding victims who want to talk about it (testimonies are collected for scientific research (universities, museum of industrial history).
• Give meaning to a living and vulnerable natural monument.
• Giving the asbestos victims a place in history.
• Contacting organizations, artists and experts who can help us.
• Putting together a pool of various specialists-speakers for the tree visits.
• Creating a sample design for communications to associations and the public. Letters, invitations, publications.
• Composing the brochure: an article on the history of the tree and its specific characteristics, an article on the asbestos victims in the regions of Belgium.
An article on the choice of a tree as a living monument.
• We invite individual artists to be inspired by issues and trees in complete freedom. Apart from a compelling artistic context.
This is along the lines of choosing an existing, living tree as a monument.
Koen Van Synghel (architect and critic): Tree cult in Turkish culture and the mulberry tree:
"Defining the elements that belong to nature and transmitting different motifs to future generations are important for Turks to preserve cultural values.One of the elements at the center of life is the tree, which is as essential as water, air and soil for the creation of the universe.First of all, the tree represents existence, life, vitality and fertility. In history, many different roles are attributed to trees in Turkish and world cultures.In the early periods of the ancient Turks, holiness was attributed to various natural elements, including the tree, by praying to them.In that period, binding to the various natural elements in a religious-mystical sense led to “cults.”
• [ S E C R E T E N ] • Science >< Poetry... 1990-2024.
Drawings, a tool for learning • to perceive the natural world more accurately, remember facts better. To understand it from a new perspective. As a tool for seeing and to understand it better.
Drawings [50 cm x 65 cm]. A series of drawings since 1990. Paper: Hollands Van Gelder.
[download here pdf file of these drawings].
• [ M Y . D A I L Y . L O N G I N G S ] • Limited edition of prints on paper • Biotop paper A3 •
• [ E A R T H . C O N N E C T I O N S ] • Mary Patricia Warming [Berlin/USA, curator of ArtScie Exhibits Community Berlin - Humboldt University].
Earth Connections will open an online gallery in Berlin in 2024 with agents in the United States: Gallery Green will appeal to art collectors who have a passion for art and nature-friendliness. Our art will continue to gain value as we continue to pay attention to the environment with the collection.
Art Science Exhibits Berlin has brought on board a social media/communications partner from the Erasmus Young Entrepreneurs Program to help with this new venture and promotions. Natalia Góral is moving to Berlin from Poland and, in addition, CIEE student intern Max Kuhn is joining the team.
Stefaan van Biesen 2020. Earth Collections, the Permanent Collection of the Art / NaturSci Movement
Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder •
About: Set in motion by international artist mp Warming, Art Science Exhibits Berlin is an independent enterprise created, and consistently recreated, by artists and scientists. The exhibitions and public programs we present work to greater the sphere of ArtSci conversation - towards positivity and solutions. Our mission for the future of nature-kind is to help
Time is pressing • In over 4.5 billion years of geological time, Earth’s carbon cycle has suffered few extremes like today's. We and our fellow species are in trouble - here and now. The immediacy of the effects of weather changes, humankind’s degradation of the forests and oceans, and the intimacy of the effects on us, is stunning. And the driving force for the determined action of many to meet these challenges head on. And so, Art Science Exhibits Berlin has developed the most solution based partnership possible - with
