12.02.26 – 15.02.26, Si & La, students media art

Tom Callemin's artistic research starts from the question of how identity and meaning arise within our perception of images. These processes are constantly changing now that digital and artificial techniques effortlessly generate convincing realities. The photographic images we are confronted with every day increasingly show us a fictional illusion. A fundamental tension is particularly evident in portraiture: behind the skin of the synthetic body lie not psychology or emotions, but merely mathematical calculations of data.

Based on this theme, Callemin set to work with analogue materials such as plaster, wood, clay, shadow and light to create new images that challenge our perception. Like a mirror, each image is a reflection of our gaze and of the act of depicting itself. What do we see? Can we believe the image as it presents itself to us? To what extent do we ourselves give meaning to what we see, apart from what is happening before our eyes?

In the exhibition, Callemin's photographic work is combined with an extensive archive of visual material that addresses these issues throughout history and in different contexts. The developments we are confronted with today in the field of visual culture are not new. With the advent of each medium, such as painting, film and sculpture, which once constituted a technological innovation, similar questions arose about image, meaning and illusion.

A third section of the exhibition stems from the collaboration with filmmaker Griet Teck, who translated the visual research in Callemin's studio into a short film. We get a glimpse of how details from the studio form an illusion in front of the camera. Entire landscapes are constructed in the privacy of the studio as a second reality, where reality unfolds slightly differently. This reveals the underlying constructions of the images that Callemin meticulously builds up. It becomes clear that his images carry an illusion not only in their subject matter, but also in their creation.

Tom Callemin is an artistic researcher affiliated with KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and Howest. The research project “Hidden in Plain Sight” was funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

On 15 January 2026, Tom Callemin, artistic researcher at KASK & Conservatorium, will defend his doctoral reasearch to obtain the title of Doctor of Arts. On behalf of the candidate's supervisors, Dr. Anouk De Clercq (KASK & Conservatorium) and Prof. Dr. Koenraad Jonckheere (UGent), we would like to invite you to this event.

The public defense will start at 15:00 in the Zwarte Zaal on Campus Bijloke. Afterwards, you are welcome to attend the reception. The exhibition Double Reality (Research Output) can be visited at the same location before and after the defense. Please confirm your attendance at the public defense by emailing tom.callemin@hogent.be.

Tom Callemin's artistic research starts from the question of how identity and meaning arise within our perception of images. These processes are constantly changing now that digital and artificial techniques effortlessly generate convincing realities. The photographic images we are confronted with every day increasingly show us a fictional illusion. A fundamental tension is particularly evident in portraiture: behind the skin of the synthetic body lie not psychology or emotions, but merely mathematical calculations of data.

Based on this theme, Callemin explores how we can still understand or trust images. He works with analogue materials such as plaster, wood, clay, shadow and light to construct new situations that exist on the border between reality and illusion. These tangible, material elements counterbalance digital representations and at the same time reveal that every image – however convincing – is a constructed reality.

His images therefore function as mirrors: they turn the gaze back to the viewer and to the process of meaning-making itself. What exactly do we see? Can we believe the image as it presents itself? And to what extent do our own expectations, doubts and projections determine what we perceive? Callemin's research makes it clear that the encounter between image and observer creates a constantly shifting landscape of interpretations, in which identity and meaning are never stable data, but are constantly being reshaped.

The research project Hidden in Plain Sight was funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

Praktisch

Due to roadworks at the Godshuizenlaan / Groot-Brittanniëlaan intersection, it is very difficult to reach Louis Pasteurlaan by car and to park there. Please use public transport as much as possible. From Gent Sint-Pieters, you can take tram T1 or T3 to Bijlokehof. Here you can find instructions on how to reach the Bijloke site during the roadworks.

The most accessible route (including for wheelchair users) is via the entrance at STAM, Godshuizenlaan 2.

Animation spans multiple dimensions of our lives. It is a magical, philosophical, physical experience, and a form of social action. Coming from a background in engineering and science, Pedram began his artistic practice as an animator in 2015. Meanwhile, he frames animation rather as an encyclopaedic practice: a multidimensional study exploring the intersections of art, science, humanity, and technology.

This exhibition traces a dialogue between Pardeh-Khani – (literally, “reading the curtain”) – and contemporary animation. This ancient Iranian art of pictorial storytelling combined painted canvases with epic poetry, music, and performance. Storytellers brought images to life through voice, gesture, and rhythm, while audiences engaged collectively, experiencing knowledge through multiple senses.

In Pedram’s practice, Pardeh-Khani endures both as a tradition and as a method—a way to activate archives and perform knowledge, shaping how we communicate, learn, and make sense of the world. The exhibition gathers a decade of practice (2015–2025) – including installations, drawings, sketches, paintings, VR, and video fragments – bringing Pedram’s archive into view while opening toward new departures.

On 27.11.25, on the occasion of the opening, two performances will take place from 19:00 onwards. Teacher Paul Demets will open the evening with poetry, and Amin Azizi will close it with music!

Pedram Kargar is an artistic researcher affiliated with KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and Howest. The research project Behind the curtains of animation was funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

🖤 **Doomscroll Slumber Party** 🖤

✨ *Scroll together into oblivion – but cosily and in your pyjamas* ✨

Are you someone who ‘quickly checks the news’ before going to bed and then startles awake three hours later to an obscure video about the end of the world? **Good news:** you don’t have to do it alone anymore.

📱 + 🛏 + ☕ = 💀 ❤ Welcome to the **Doomscroll Slumber Party** – the place where doomscrolling can finally be social. 

What to expect:
🖤 Snuggling up together on the sofa while silently staring at a screen
🖤 Light-hearted competitions: who can find the most depressing reel?
🖤 A safe space for deep sighs and nervous laughter
🖤 Blankets, snacks, blue light filters and tea
🖤 And yes, occasionally a real conversation **Because when the world ends, we'd rather do it together – in comfortable clothes.

** 🎟 Bring yourself, your friends and possibly your comfy pyjamas **#doomscrollslumberparty #gezelligtenonder #togetherinthedark**

Due to illness, the performance on 18.09.25 at 20:30 has been cancelled. The exhibition remains open.

In 2025, NOON collective began developing And now the beginning is somewhere else – a performative installation that will evolve throughout the season 2025-2026. After a premiere at Beyond the Black Box in Antwerp in May 2025, a first series of adaptations of the installation takes place at the Zwarte Zaal of KASK & Conservatorium.

Over four days, NOON opens the doors of this immersive installation to the public. On Wednesday afternoon, students are invited to immerse themselves in a series of activations. On Thursday and Friday afternoons, visitors can explore and experience the installation, while on Thursday and Friday evenings, the work unfolds as a live performance.

On Sunday, NOON presents the first trial of And now the beginning is somewhere else: NEW LANDSCAPE STORIES – an extended version of their performative installation, developed in the atmosphere of a lab. And now… invites you in a shared landscape where performance and practices mingle, shaped by the impressions, interactions and transformations of the week. A shared Sunday afternoon to rest, play and imagine where it started, all over again.

About And now the beginning is somewhere else

And now the beginning is somewhere else is an immersive performative installation – a space you are invited to enter.

Through an extreme landscape, made out of the logic of foam, you make your way in between suspended time, traces of water and petrol. It seems like nothing can happen here. Yet, with time what simmers under the surface unveils itself. Balancing between stillness and motion, the landscape unravels its memories and narratives, from a long time ago - or maybe, now.

And now the beginning is somewhere else is a performative installation where you are invited inside of. Through sound, light, choreographic elements, and through polypropylene, living beings, water and foam, a world of interwoven relationships begins to emerge.

About NOON collective

NOON is a multidisciplinary collective creating performative installations rooted in questions of how we might be together differently. Their work explores encounters between human and non-human forces, shifting bodies, and the search for – or perhaps the emergence of – new forms of symbiosis. Through layered, sensory experiences, NOON invites us to imagine new modes of connection, cohabitation, and transformation.

Credits

• concept/performing: Iris Donders, Delphine Mertens
• concept/(end) direction: Judith Dhondt
• performing/creation: Im Kanokporn Vorapharuek
• sound creation: Lucie Grésil
• space development: Eline Harmse
• firstobject development: Edie de Vere
• costume creation: stef assandri
• light design: Caroline Mathieu
• dramaturgy: Sara Manente
• choreographic assistant: Anja Röttgerkamp, Janka De Waele
• production: Emma Steurs
• graphic design: Joram De Cocker
• polypropylen research: Elena Vloeberghen
• Co-production C-TAKT, KAAP & SoAP
• With the finan­ci­al sup­port of the Flemish Government and Stad Ghent
• Supported by BUDA, CAMPO, KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT – Howest), KIOSK, De School van Gaasbeek, de Koer, de Verffabriek, A Two Dogs Company, Mouvance ASBL, Kunstenwerkplaats pianofabriek, and Garage 29

Come see the work of 3rd-year illustration students! Gabriella Amir, Julia Butter, Joppe Carael, Vero Denecker, Evelien Dignef, Norien Ewane, Richelle Maus, Klaudia Mytkowska, Indira Pinto Santana, Julie Tymoshenko, Anna Constantijn, Paulien Van Loo and Lex Verslijkcke are proud to present their projects from the bachelor project.

The exhibition opens at 18:00 on 5 June, and will also be on display from 12:00 to 18:00 on 6 June.

For this exhibition, students from the second Bachelor of drawing create large-format works. Six large double-sided walls in the Zwarte Zaal serve as their starting point. Wall Drawing is an experiment in which students research different mediums and materials and learn to deal with the facets of exhibiting.

Participating students: Marie Berth, Ozan Can, Veronika Dzenisenka, Rafael Ferreira de Proença, Elisa Hemelsoet, Olivia Janssens, Kathleen Joos, Gabriela Oswiecinska, Vibe Paternoster, Tine Roets, Faye-Linn van Dillen, Dina Vanhassel, Junior Vita

I Want to Hold You identifies sensitivity as a central aspect in all featured artistic practices, holding the subject close as an intentional act, thus differentiating what is personal from the mass stream of (mis)information and imagery. As reality becomes less graspable and more debilitating, the included artists have identified something that they want to hold space for, possibly hold onto - something to break up the ungraspable current. Some draw attention to their relationship with people they hold close, sharing their loving eye with the viewer. Others use their practice as a way of capturing, giving and holding energy, culture and atmospheres they feel the need to share.

• With work by: Tom Lyon, Louis Locus, Han Nguyen, Lotta Kestens, Noé Znidarsic, Romee Noyelle, Davide Degano, Lennert Lefever, Sydney Burgstra
• Curated by: Marie Cathérine Stalpaert, Gustav-Adam Dendooven, Emilia-Naomi Keller, Nina Turina, Arthur Saint-Remy

As is the annual custom, the graphic design work of bachelor students is on display in the Zwarte Zaal. This edition focuses on the work of third-year bachelor students. The exhibition shows how engaging with and relating to sometimes age-old artistic and technical traditions of reproducing text and images leads to very diverse artistic practices that are part of the current artistic field.

With work by Helen Adams, Lotte Baele, Anne Dekeyser, Luca Lambrecht, Rani Muyllaert, Lena Van Daele, Riet Van Lysebettens, Lotte Van Puyvelde, Gray Vogelaars

Contour Kantoor is a place where the third bachelor installation mixes loose and non-committal ideas and concepts into a fluid exhibition. Here, contours of thoughts become visible, trains of thought developing into twisted or, on the contrary, recognisable forms. Like the carousel, this creative space is a game of inspiration and transformation, where the boundary between reality and imagination blurs, and where each spinning idea contributes to the power of the whole.