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This weekend (23-26 May), the yearly Open Studios at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Ghent marked the middle of an ongoing process of thirteen international artists in the first year and ten in the second year. Through discussions with visiting lecturers, workshops, field trips and reading groups the HISK-programme shows the artists possible avenues to further develop their individual practice.

A visit to the Open Studios may not be an ideal way to gain a deep understanding of what an artist is involved in, but it certainly gives you an idea. Entering twenty-three different universes, you can definitely tell which ones really pull you in. Any interesting artist’s practice is energetic, eccentric, and coming from a place of sincere interest. It hangs in the studio like a whiff of perfume. The very concept of the Open Studios is not to present full-fledged works of art, but mainly to give the public an insight into an artist’s practice, interests and experimentations.

Some artists (mainly in the second year), like Nicolas Pelzer (DE) and Lola Lasurt Bachs (ES), chose to turn their studio into a small scale exhibition space, while others (mainly in the first year), like Leyla Aydoslu (BE) and Klaas Vanhee (BE), left their studio in its natural state. A tendency which partly has to do with the fact that second years are ready to spread their wings and pursue professional careers in the international art world, but also with the size of the studio, often four times as big as the ones reserved for the first year.

With only a couple of square meters to present their work, some of the newcomers decided to team up and take in two left-over studio’s to present some additional pieces. Leyla Aydosly (BE), Laure Cottin Stefanelli (FR), Flurin Bisig (CH), Emmanuel Van der Auwera (BE) and Raffaella Crispino (IT) made a small presentation consisting of sculptures and installations, well-positioned in space. Remarkable how a great number of artists among this new group is working in 3D and experimenting with large installations.

Here are some of my highlights:

Kasper Bosmans (BE) is not afraid to embrace beauty as his main point of interest. More specifically, he seeks the decorative potential of things and animals. After slaughtering a rooster he bought at the market, he extracted particles of stone from its stomach, which he presented in his studio under glass as precious crystals.

Furthermore, Bosmans presented a series of remarkable paintings, as well as a collection of small feathers of his moulting parakeet on a piece of marble.
Liesbeth Doms (BE) is an artist whose interest extends to the aura of the artist. She investigates the expectations of what the artist should be or do and how she can respond to this. In her studio, among other artist’s tools and furniture, she presents a dazzle-camouflage enabling her to make any image or thing into a conceptual work of art.

The presentation of Benjamin Verhoeven (BE) consisted of an installation with a copy machine scanning L’eclisse by Michelangelo Antonioni’s. This resulted into estranging stills piling up on the floor of his studio – an experiment which Verhoeven is currently further developing.

Rather than making new things, Andrea Galiazzo’s (IT) practice consists of using an existing situation, image or object. Trying to get rid of making things, he made the seemingly impossible attempt at retracing the drawings he made as a child. Another project, addressing the opposition between failure and success, came about when Galiazzo’s bike got stolen in Brussels. He spread a range of silk screens in the city to get it back. Incapable to recuperate it Galiazzo produced ten additional silk screens which he sold in order to buy a new bike.

HISK Open Studios
Gent
24 till 26 May