10.11.26 – 22.11.26, #198, Noor Flamey, Qualifications for a New Sport, i.s.m. Frieda De Doncker

‘Fabricate Nature’ is an exploration of the way in which we, as human beings, relate to a natural world that is becoming increasingly distorted, yet on which we have simultaneously come to depend to a great extent. This alienation is visible everywhere. The forests we walk through are often man-made and consist of monocultures that take their toll on flora and fauna. The food on shop shelves contains ingredients whose names we can barely read or understand. The landscape around us, too, is increasingly defined by a mechanical, man-made environment. It is precisely this alienation that Matts Nauwelaers seeks to portray in his exhibition. ‘Fabricate Nature’ explores the boundary between the natural and the man-made, and asks how we relate today to a natural world that is increasingly being shaped, adapted and replaced by our own hands.

Beste Jack,

We kennen elkaar niet. Dit is een uitnodiging. Een instructieboekje. Zo een die je tegenkomt bij je nieuwe aangekochte monopolydoos. Iets wat je niet opent omdat je allang de spelregels, of je eigen versie kent. Beste Jack, ik vraag: wil jij met mij dit spel spelen?

Het spel van het onwetende, van vrijheid en van ontdekking.

Ik speel niet graag alleen. Lees jij de instructies?

Dus Jack, wat is spel voor jou? Speel jij wel volgens de spelregels? Of ga je mee met mij de spelregels overtreden. Dan kunnen we op het einde samen onze onverdiende overwinning vieren. Je moet wel weten, wie graag de regels breekt, botst natuurlijk wel op muren, want valspelers worden uiteindelijk altijd uitgesloten.

Groetjes

Curated by Nora Franco

A scenography of memories

This place refers to a space beyond itself

A space that no longer exists as it once did

This is how I remember it

At least, I think it is

This is a desperate attempt to hold on

Onto something temporary

keep writing

keep drawing

And above all, to keep dreaming

Of how everything once looked

Until I can no longer distinguish

What is still real

And what I have imagined

But does that still matter?

A memory is temporary. They fade, they deform and eventually, they disappear. We cannot perceive or recall time as merely a physical dimension, but only through its traces, places, images, and  events. 

We remember through space, especially through the intimacy of the house. To remember is to dream; to dream is to create memory. In trying to translate this, we encounter limits. Walls, details, and sharpness cannot contain the multidimensionality of memory. Incompleteness and fragmentation hold a suggestive, emotional power. They force us toward memory and imagination. Shadows, as reductions, leave space to complete what is missing. 

Within this, I question textile as a material for scenography. Rather than filling space, I explore how it can expand through shadow, transparency, and reflection, existing beyond its physical form. 

As a costly and temporary medium, textile calls for adaptability rather than fixed, site-specific design. Atmosphere emerges not from covering a space, but from engaging with it, working in relation to what is already there.

In this project, scenography is simply a space that refers to a place outside itself. It does so without imitating it, without creating an exact copy. The opportunity to fantasize is stronger than the realistic image.

RANDVOORWAARDE is a collaboration between Margaux De Pauw and Charlotte Bracke.

Together, they explore the role of fire extinguishers within an exhibition space and how they can relate to paintings without being perceived as a distraction. Rather than ignoring the fire extinguisher, Charlotte aims to draw attention to it. We are all familiar with the accompanying pictograms, but they often disappear from view until danger threatens.

In this exhibition, they bring the fire extinguisher, pictogram and painting together. What is normally ignored becomes a playful interaction here. For perhaps the fire extinguisher is the most successful object in the art world: it hangs in every museum.

‘Have you ever heard a nightingale scream?’, tells the story of Philomela, one of the many women in Greek mythology whose voice has been silenced. Through audio works, Anne Rosa Lut explores how women, just like songbirds, have altered their voice in order to be heard within a patriarchal society filled with noise.

Frilly Blouse Syndrome takes its cue from Linda Nochlin’s essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (1971), and examines the representation and visibility of women within art history.

Taking Rosa Bonheur as a starting point, we encounter a 19th-century female artist who did not so much find her place as take it — and then simply stayed there.

In een ademende, veranderlijke ruimte raakt Washing The Soul aan een innerlijke verschuiving, een beweging van loslaten en terugkeren. In die omwenteling wordt het zelf zachter, ontvankelijk voor wat het overstijgt. Wat hier resoneert, is een stille toenadering tot het onnoembare.

Dit project brengt het werk van twee beeldhouwers samen. Lenie creëert witte, humoristische mengwezens: combinaties van verschillende levende wezens die samen een nieuw, eigen universum vormen.

Alyssia Reale vertrekt vanuit alledaagse consumptieobjecten, vaak speelgoed, en onderzoekt hoe hun betekenis vervaagt door tijd, gebruik en herinnering. Met felle kleuren en speelse vormen balanceert haar werk tussen herkenbaarheid en abstractie.

Rippelstippel fungeert als verbindend element in de ruimte en versterkt de samenhorigheid tussen beide oeuvres. Het sobere kleurgebruik van Lenie vormt een spannend contrast met Alyssia’s opvallende kleuren, waardoor hun werken elkaar aanvullen en versterken.