Abstract Entities (interventions)

Thomas Hitchcock's exhibition Abstract Entities serves as an open platform for temporary interventions by Belgian art students. Throughout the exhibition period, a multitude of interventions will unfold across various media, including performances, music, collective readings, talks, workshops, discussions, body practices, poetry, and screenings.

Marthe Merckx, Katrijn Ooms

Jij mag niet mee spelen

16.03.2025, 3:00

Marthe Merckx and Katrijn Ooms approach their practice as a playful experiment. With a collection of everyday objects and found materials such as cuddly toys, dolls, pieces of painted cardboard, fluffy animals, porcelain cups, rope and plastic Barbie limbs, they create a temporary installation that is constantly in motion. They occupy the space with chalk, creating an interplay of two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality.

In the stream of thought of Thomas Hitchcock within the exhibition Abstract Entities, they invite viewers to literally become part of the work. They investigate the boundaries between respect and playfulness, the boundaries of participation blur. The visitor is encouraged to step carefree over the compositions or navigate with caution and care by hopping over the lines, as a reminder of the fluidity of space, time and material.

Marthe Merckx is currently a master student at KASK Ghent in the Liberal Arts. Her practice is characterized by the use of bale cotton as the primary carrier and the use of thick oil paint that generates a powerful visual impact through its gloss and texture. At the same time, she works with found objects such as cuddly toys, in which she confronts the 'innocence' and 'comfort' of these objects with manipulation and powerlessness. This creates a tension between something that is usually experienced as soft and protective as something dirty and uncanny, that which does not belong.

Through this strategy, she investigates how we deal with beings and objects that cannot physically defend themselves or express themselves verbally. In doing so, she refers to historical and contemporary forms of oppression and exploitation, in which empathy is lacking for those who are seen as 'inferior'. Her work enters into dialogue with theories about purity and pollution, as described by Mary Douglas. The power relationship between parent and child, and how easily it can derail, is a recurring motif. In this way, she challenges the viewer: who dares to be ‘tender’ to a stained cuddly toy and to what extent does that empathy differ from the distance we take when dealing with clean, seemingly innocent objects?

Katrijn Ooms (°2003, lives and works in Mol, Belgium), is a maker and arranger. Starting from an image bank and a collection of forgotten, decayed and beloved objects, she arranges the various visual elements into scenes, which then form the basis for or are interpreted in installation, sculpture and painting. With earth tones and greyed children's room colors, she tries to touch on delusions of closed gatherings, alienated objects and hidden memories.

Lara Finkenstädt

City Girls

16.03.2025, 4:30

On March 16th, Lara Finkenstädt will present her sound installation City Girls. The recorded text will drift through the exhibition space, exploring "the ubiquitous figure of the girl as a self." Drawing on her research and visits to several Art Nouveau houses in Brussels, Finkenstädt seeks to immerse herself in the lives once lived there, constructing an abstract world that shifts between layers of time and place.

Lara Finkenstädt (°2001) is an artist based in Offenbach, Germany. Her practice spans slideshows, installations, and writing, often exploring the intersection of personal and public histories. Using visual and textual found footage, her work maps the movement of women through cities and interiors. Her arrangements, often reminiscent of mood boards, organize images in a way that blends collage with archival methods.

Sophie Bertram
Pact, Pact, Pact

16.03.2025, 17:00

pact pact pact

project subject object
object project subject
subject object project
neglect neglect neglect

projection subjection objection
objection projection subjection
subjection objection projection
connection connection connection

Sophie Bertram (1997) is trained as a scientist in social psychology and as a performance artist. Her backgrounds are intertwined in her artistic practice, where she conducts research into complex social constructs. The products of this research are her performances, in which she deconstructs seemingly self-evident concepts by playing with conventional social dynamics (in performance) and restructures them, using recognizable objects and materials from her childhood.

Atelier Mixed Media, LUCA School of Arts Ghent

Where art Thou with Thy wonders with Thy mighty will, Thy lightning and Thy thunder why do they stay still

13.03.2025 - 18:00/21:00

For several years now, the mixed media studio, as an ever-rejuvenating collective, has been happy to accept the generous invitation to intervene in very specific contexts. For which we are sincerely grateful! These are valuable exercises for a bunch of artists with diverse artistic concerns to challenge the collective, authorship, the arts, the exhibition and the public. A random collection of artists starting to know each other through sharing this time, space, and energy. Nothing is fixed until the moment of the much-praised mystical truth. Everything can still change at the last minute. But at the time of writing, it seems to become an amalgam of coRee, whipped cream, Thomas Hitchcock's artist talks, open windows, whistling birds, thunder and lightning, hacking hardcore, and aubergine. Yet another attempt to challenge a Rolywholyover composition in search of elegance, dance and ecstasy, beauty and style, the never-ending garden party, infinite pleasure, and mixed fun.

The Mixed Media studio is a studio within the visual arts of LUCA School of arts Ghent. In addition to the media audio, photo, video and performance, which the studio provides as a kind of basis, the studio is especially curious about which artistic practices could emerge from the combination of these and other media, and the curiosity of each individual student. The studio attaches great importance to the collective, not so much as a search for a collective identity, but as a sympathetic form to be able to think and act in the collective, and thus bundle the energy that consists of very diverse forces.

KASK - Drawing department, First Bachelor

theekentafel

10.03.2025, 13:00/18:00

The students of the first Bachelor of the Drawing department invite you to come and draw with them at their theekentafel.

They set up a table in the KIOSK with a simple white disposable tablecloth and invite people to join them, drink a cup of tea, and draw with them on the tablecloth.

In the center of our studio there is a table that acts as a place to get together, have something to eat or drink, have a conversation, and above all, draw.

We want to bring the kind of light-hearted, free, and spontaneous drawing that emerges at this table to KIOSK.

Garance Debert

Mysterious CANTATERROR

08.03.2025 - 17:00

Een personage verwant aan een ontgoochelde Pierrot neemt de gedaante aan van een karaoke-virtuoos antiheld. Vanuit zijn multifunctionele Android verlicht hij de menigte met zijn bliksemschicht: soms melancholisch, soms ironisch opgewekt. Zijn verlegen, donkere dans maakt hem schuchter, stormachtig verliefd op zijn eigen schaduw. Verloren in de troosteloze refreinen, omarmd door ijzige spiegels om zich heen – kopieën die ongevoelig zijn voor dynamische omwegen, ondoordringbare voyeuristische getuigen van zijn schittering. Ogenschijnlijk subtiel, met behendige kuiltjes, doorkruist hij steden, rivieren, bossen en mensen.

Garance Debert is een Franse performancekunstenaar gevestigd in Brussel. Ze ontwikkelt een praktijk op het snijvlak van dans, performance en video, en waagt zich af en toe aan publicatie. In haar werk onderzoekt ze het lichaam als archief en ruimte voor overdracht, waar gebaren een terrein worden voor experiment en heractivering. Via een anachronistische benadering van beweging kaapt ze de codes van mime, virtuositeit en het groteske om te bevragen hoe betekenis en collectieve verbeelding verschijnen en verdwijnen. Haar werk onderzoekt de oorsprong van performativiteit door noties van virtuositeit en oppervlakkigheid op hun kop te zetten. Tussen expressiviteit en leegte, instabiliteit en precisie van het gebaar, ziet ze het podium als een collectieve, interactieve ruimte waar herinnering belichaamd wordt zonder nostalgie.

Ze is opgeleid als klassiek en hedendaags danseres, behaalde een DNSPD aan het CNDC in Angers en studeerde vervolgens aan de ERG in Brussel, waar ze met grote onderscheiding afstudeerde met een Master in de Beeldende Kunsten. Haar werk werd gepresenteerd in uiteenlopende artistieke contexten, van instituten zoals WIELS, Bozar Rooftop en CC Strombeek tot experimentele ruimten zoals Ateliers Mommen, de Project(ion) Room en SB34. Naast haar artistieke praktijk ontwikkelde ze een curatoriële praktijk en organiseerde ze evenementen die tentoonstellingen en performances combineren in Brussel, waaronder L'Opéra Discret bij de 312 Foundations en Grotte et Ist bij de Ateliers du Loto.

Ava Darvishi

When I Colored the Earth Bright

08.03.2025 - 16:00

In my daily life—through my thoughts and struggles—living here in Ghent, far from my hometown, I find myself longing for the past. I miss the moments I can no longer experience, and the loss of a loved one feels like a heavy wave crashing over my mind. I seek to connect my experiences here with my memories, weaving together the past and present.

As I reflect, my struggle deepens. I think of those I have lost, which inspires me to write stories about them, recreating our moments together through pictures and words. It is my way of connecting with them, among all the time I lost and can never get back, or perhaps the only way.

This project was never a conscious decision; it has always been present in my thoughts, interwoven with my fears and anxieties. It is a work in progress one without a definite ending because the more I try to remember, the more stories I find to write. It is an ongoing exploration without an end.

Countless reasons pull me further from my past, but I am trying to push the boundaries of my mind, writing these moments down to erase even one of the thousand reasons that distance me.

Ava Darvishi

Ava Darvishi is a theatermaker and actress from Iran who is currently based in Ghent. She has been a member of Sada Ghent Playback Theatre since 2022. Ava has performed in several international projects, including Voicelessness, performed at Apparatus in Seoul in 2024, and Medea at the Bozar Institute in Brussels in 2018.

Ava Darvishi holds a BA in Acting from the Art and Architecture University in Tehran, an MA in Puppet Theater from the University of Tehran, and a postgraduate degree in Digital Storytelling from KASK University. She is currently pursuing studies in Performing Arts at KASK & Conservatorium, Ghent.

Anne Rosa Lut

An exercise in connection and separation #4

08.03.2025 - 15:00

An exercise in connection and separation #4 is a performance by Anne Rosa Lut, in which she tries to get a grasp on the space in between. She divides up the room and the audience with blue lines, to explore what it’s like to be separated from each other. The lines make visible the distance between us, marking the place where one thing ends and the other begins. But can these lines also be a place of longing, a place of desire for what’s on the other side?

As a pre-master student Autonomous Design, Anne Rosa Lut (she/her) has been researching borders as a potential place for connection. By visiting and documenting the border between Belgium and her birth country, The Netherlands, she explores what it’s like to be on the line between two cultures. Recent political developments are showing the urgency of redefining this space, not only as a place where two things are separated, but also as a place where two things come together, which is what Rosa tries to do in her work.

Emma Crombé & Louis Dewitte

Tape Taped

06.03.2025 - from 12:00

Our intervention consists of taping a square on the floor of KIOSK, creating a conceptual space that explores boundaries, time and virtuality. This process involves experimenting with camera angles, filters and perspectives to shape a digital space. This temporary action serves as a basis for the video work presented in KIOSK. The project connects themes of elasticity and reflection, using humour, repetition and exaggeration to explore the space between physical and digital spaces.

Emma Crombé & Louis Dewitte

Emma Crombé and Louis Dewitte are a Ghent-based artist duo who met at KASK. Their work combines humour, irony and everyday elements, dissecting and reassembling familiar objects and ideas. Emma focuses on themes such as laughter and societal hierarchies, while Louis explores layered meanings through bright colours and playful imagery. Together they create multimedia installations, videos and paintings. Their collaborative projects, such as the exhibition Geluk zit in de kleine dingen (2024), highlight their shared interest in self-referentiality and nostalgia.

Bo Lemmens

Naveldrager

06.03.2025 - 13:30-15:00 (session 1) / 15:30-17:00 (session 2)

In this intervention, we will create collective drawings together, based on a few texts that I have written around the word Naveldrager. I will start reading the texts (Dutch spoken) and we will continue by drawing our associations together on a big piece of paper for one hour. After the drawing, we will gather in a circle for a short reflection.

Bo Lemmens

About Bo Lemmens: I am in my first year of the Bachelor Media Art at KASK & Conservatorium. My work often starts with writing from an image that I have in my mind. I later connect these images to the physical world, to tangible material, that you can feel with your hands. This results in several media. At the moment I use embroidery as a medium to make words tactile.

Wolfe De Roeck

Model Of Matter - My, I Present You

06.03.2025 - evening

In Model of Matter, I explore the complex relationship between the body and body images, focusing on the principles of beauty and the mutability of our perceptions. The body often acts as a victim of the compelling norms and ideals that prevail within body culture, similar to the way the Art Nouveau movement used nature as inspiration to capture beauty in its most elegant and fluid forms. The relentless comparison with others, and the incessant competition that ensues, leads to a deeper form of alienation - both from ourselves and each other. When is our body no longer ourselves, but rather an object in the eyes of others? Historically, art has always served as a mirror of society, a detailed representation of what we wanted to see. This reflection creates a consciousness that forces us to view ourselves through the lens of the other. In this underlying struggle, I find it essential to dissect and re-examine existing images. My art is a communicative tool that offers opportunities to question and break down established norms surrounding bodies.

Wolfe De Roeck

As a performer, Wolfe De Roeck’s art practice centers on the re-presentation of physicality, exploring the limits of body-ness and transforming it into a deeper, conceptual experience. Through the use of virtual technologies, rituals and traditional elements, she creates a unique fourth dimension within performance, in which action theater plays an important role. She considers space not merely as a backdrop, but as an organic extension of her body, shaped by structures and objects that are in direct connection with her presence. Her work is steeped in movement; it is a continuous search for the dynamics of locomotion. Wolfe strives to dissect values while building an innovative visual identity characterized by shifts and changes. For her, performance acts as a means to unframe and reframe the observable, challenging the viewer to experience reality from new perspectives. Her artistic practice is an invitation to reshape the intimate relationship between maker and beholder, creating a space for reflection and connection.

Frederique Kraus

Staged

06.03.2025 - evening

Staged is an intervention that revolves around the fragility of asking for attention. Three delicate stages, precisely matching the dimensions of the space Frederique occupies while standing still, will be placed around KIOSK. Their placement is determined by the subjective level of comfort they provide in relation to their surroundings. Due to their fragile construction, the stages will gradually collapse over time, depending on how long they are used. This process materializes the act of daring to be seen, while destroying the platform used.

Dutch artist Frederique Kraus (born 2001) is based in Ghent and Antwerp. After completing her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, she is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the KASK School of Arts in Ghent. Her work consists of site-specific installations and the realm of photography, with a primary focus on accepting the ordinary and finding comfort in it. She addresses situations that resonate a certain solitude and turns them into something valuable.

Günther De Beuckelaer

Mummanoïds, Tied to time, but free in memory

06.03.2025 - evening

Mummanoïds is a performance centered around artificial, humanoid entities. They resemble humans but lack a soul, a history, a consciousness. This work explores the boundaries between humanity and artificial construction, questioning what it truly means to be ‘present.’

These gender-neutral entities leave space for interpretation, inviting an intuitive approach. My personal story is subtly woven into every detail, surrounded by silences and open questions. The underlying theme touches on a deeper struggle: a body that does not always feel like home, an identity shifting between fixed categories. Mummanoïds embody this duality—present yet untouched, visible yet elusive.

The viewer is invited into a dialogue, not only with a body or an object but with an artwork that asks for recognition and understanding. The work acts as a mirror—not just of the human form but of the emotions and thoughts it evokes. This creates a moment where observation, emotion, and creation merge into a shared experience.

This performance highlights the complexity of identity, memory, connection, and alienation. Every detail becomes a story, captured in the interplay of light and shadow that fills the space. Mummanoïds is a dialogue between what is seen and what remains hidden, between the tangible and the unspoken, between a skin that both protects and confines.

Günther De Beuckelaer

About Me: At 51, I made a drastic decision: I left my professional career behind and chose to study again at KASK & Conservatorium Ghent, specializing in Visual Arts. In a world shifting further to the right, I feel the urgency to raise my voice and spread a message of tolerance, inclusion, and diversity. For me, art is the ultimate language to visualize and share these emotions.

As a performer, I often use my own body as a medium of expression. My work balances between autobiography, artistic inspiration, and imagination. By integrating the fragility of my nakedness into my performances, I aim to bring inner processes to the surface and engage in a deeper dialogue with my audience.

Günther De Beuckelaer

Zita Bruyland

Whatever it is that you want to name

04.03.2025 - 12:30

My intervention invites participants to record themselves walking from the kiosk to the art library, capturing the physical movement but also their thoughts, feelings, and experiences during the process—such as how they feel while recording in public or what thoughts arise along the way. Then, they walk the same route again while listening to someone else’s recording. By following another person’s steps, they might notice subtle differences in movement, focus, or presence. The performance creates a quiet space where personal and shared experiences meet, giving attention to what usually remains unspoken.

Zita Bruyland

About Zita Bruyland: In my work, I explore ways to address contemporary themes such as artificial intelligence, beauty standards, social media, and societal structures. I experiment with text, image, sound, and performance, seeking confrontation, dialogue, and interaction. In doing so, I not only question the world around me but also examine my own actions, position, and responsibility within it. My interest in activism plays a significant role in this process. In addition to theater and performance, I have a passion for film and acting on camera.

Sam Mansart (guitar)

Amelie Vermeiren (cello)

Isa Opstaele (double bass)

Atze Jarvis (piano)
Rzępolenie

03.03.2025, 8 pm.

We are a free improvisation collective of four classically trained musicians exploring interdisciplinary communication through spontaneous creation. Using soundscapes, we create a conversation between music and the exhibition, letting improvisation shape how we interact with the artworks. Our performance will be guided by the space, the works, and the energy of the moment. This performance unfolds in five chapters, each beginning with one of us introducing an idea. From there, we build on it together, letting the music develop naturally until it reaches a stopping point. The transitions between chapters are marked by cassette samples from a thrift shop. These short interludes act as a signal that a new section is beginning, adding an unexpected element to the flow of the performance. The final chapter is completely open- there’s no set starting point. Instead, we let the improvisation emerge freely, without any pre-planned direction. By blending music with the exhibition, we hope to create new ways of experiencing the artworks, offering fresh perspectives and interpretations.

Last November the collective Rzępolenie (pronounced like “j’aime Pologne”) was born for a one-evening collaboration with two painters from Poland (Jakub Sułecki and Julia Celer), two Erasmus exchange students, in a free impro installation looking to create a meaningful dialogue through their respective mediums, painting, and music. It was a really powerful moment for the group, so they decided to continue these interdisciplinary events, looking to recreate a special atmosphere for these unique and fragile fragments of music and visuals. Since then the group has started to perform in cozy but meaningful venues like thrift shops, art installations, cafés, ...

Anaïs Crahay
Elegantie als interioriteit

02.03.2025, 3 - 5 pm.

Als interventie op de solo tentoonstelling Abstract Entities van Thomas Hitchcock vindt er 2 maart 2025 een éénmalig artistieke evenement plaats in KIOSK waarbij er een kruisbestuiving zal plaatsvinden tussen muziek, installatie- en sculpturale kunst en schilderkunst. Dit evenement vindt doorlopend plaats op zondag 2 maart vanaf 15u in KIOSK te Gent; Louis Pasteurlaan 2; en zal afsluiten rond 17u. Gedurende 2u worden er schilderijen van Anaïs Crahay getoond die deel uitmaken van haar masteronderzoek in de Vrije Kunsten ‘Schilderkunst’ met als thematiek Elegantie als vrouwelijke interioriteit. Er zal een complementaire tekst Elegance, or what happens between the folds van Vlad Ionescu te vinden zijn naast de schilderijen. Deze tekst is een onderdeel van een (nog niet gepubliceerd) essay waarin hij zijn onderzoek naar esthetiek, elegantie en schoonheid bespreekt. Naast de schilderijen en de tekst die visueel te bezichtigen zijn, zullen er vier muzikanten aanwezig zijn: Cath Stynen (zang), Sander Celis (zang), Liesel Frans (viool), en Lander Frans (gitaar). Dit muzikale talent zal gedurende het volledige evenement de visuele werken voorzien van live muziek, zowel met als zonder zang, in de sfeer van melancholie, het kruipen in eigen wereld, elegantie en gelijktijdig een afstand, intrige... De installatie en sculpturen van de Weense beeldende kunstenaar Thomas Hitchcock zullen uiteraard ook te zien zijn. Kortom, het zet de toeschouwer aan tot nadenken.

About Anaïs Crahay

Wat is de co-relatie tussen het begrip elegantie en het vertonen van vrouwen in de schilderkunst? In het artistiek onderzoek dat Anaïs Crahay voert, staat de esthetische categorie “elegantie” centraal en wordt dit begrip, met al haar facetten, bij het vertonen van de vrouw in de schilderkunst onderzocht. Elegantie is een mineure esthetische categorie die zowel aan objecten, omgevingen en mensen worden toegekend. Aanvankelijk is het onderzoek ontstaan vanuit een passie voor de schilderkunst waar de schoonheid van de vrouw op een symbolistische manier voorgesteld wordt zodat ze meer dan enkel als een object van het mannelijke verlangen is. Binnen het symbolisme wordt ze een fantasmatisch beeld met een complexe betekenis en vooral een diep innerlijk leven. Dat laatste wordt hierbij verbonden aan poëzie, mode en de Franse cultuur van schoonheid en elegantie. Aan de hand van een literatuuronderzoek wordt er dieper ingegaan op de definitie van elegantie in al haar aspecten dat via het artistiek onderzoek in de praktijk tot uiting komt

n e d e r k o u t e r 2 1

the uncertainty of the abstract

27.02.2025, 12 - 8 p.m.

the uncertainty of the abstract is a performance that unfolds over approximately 8 hours, grounded in the act of waiting for the realization of seven actions—each repeated twice. The actions, simple yet profound, are inspired by the ordinary gestures we engage in while waiting—moments often overlooked in the rhythm of daily life. Through its long duration, the uncertainty of the abstract challenges conventional notions of performance. It dissolves boundaries between the performers and the audience, offering an immersive environment where the passage of time becomes palpable. These gestures, while seemingly mundane, gain new significance when framed within the context of extended duration and intentional repetition, transforming them into poetic expressions of continuity and change. Ultimately, the performance is not just about the individual actions or their repetition; it is about the spaces in between—the silence, the anticipation, and the gradual unfolding of time. Through its subtle choreography and musical echoes, the uncertainty of the abstract offers a contemplative journey into the essence of waiting and the rhythms of life. [performance based on Jürg Frey’s Circular Music No.1 - Nº7B]

n e d e r k o u t e r 2 1 is a musical-performative duo based in Ghent. It was formed in 2024 by Helena Ruiz and Alejandro Fenollosa. The artistic goal of the duo is to push the boundaries of what it is supposed to be music, trying not to make any distinction between life and art. Through [musical] performances they try to reflect and redefine all the things they had accepted as [musical] canon during their studies.

James Van Cauwenberghe

The Mononoke protocol test

25.02.2025, 12-2 p.m.

In a world where grudges and pent-up emotions are a well-known phenomenon, there's the existence of intellectual creatures that is not well-known to mankind. These creatures, or evil spirits to be more precise, are called Mononoke. They are born out of and feed off of those grudges and pent-up emotions. After decades of failing and experimenting, we were finally able to tame one and exhibit it today without danger.

James Van Cauwenberghe

I'm James and I'm just a chill student from the performance department.

James Van Cauwenberghe

Stephen De Smet

PREACH.

25.02.2025, 12-2 p.m.

In a society where we have to live up to certain norms, everyday life can take a toll on us. MEDICATION IS THE SOLUTION? In this happening I want to find out and keep track of how this can influence us on a day-to-day basis.

Stephen De Smet

About Stephen De Smet: HALLOOOOTJESSSS!!!!! stephen here. A student from the drawing department.

Nancy La Rosa
Upstream

24.02.2025, 6 - 9 pm.

Upstream was filmed from the perspective of a boat, capturing river landscapes and timber extraction in the vast tropical rainforest. Two movements unfold simultaneously, flowing in opposite and complementary directions.

Nancy La Rosa is a visual artist based in Brussels, working across installation, video, drawing, and printmaking. Her practice poetically explores the power relations embedded in systems of representation, while questioning the bias and limitations of historical archives and documentation across diverse cultural contexts and periods. Specifically examining a historical appropriation of local narratives through western logics. Her interest lies in the various forms of extractive capitalism, with a focus on resource extraction. Tracing the life and agency of extracted materials – such as minerals, stones, and plants – led her to observe their flow and hidden vitality.

Wolf Vader

25-06-2004 tot 18-02-2025

18.02.2025 - 12:00/14:00

Sadly, this week’s KIOSK intervention was canceled due to the unfortunate passing of a fellow KASK student.

Wolf Vader had just begun his first year in performance art last September.

Deeply fascinated by the theme of decay, he often explored the dumpsters of large food chains, sifting through heaps of expired products. He would gather his groceries, return home, cook, and eat—always with caution, aware of the risks, especially when it came to meat.

But after discovering a large bundle of jumbo shrimp, he couldn’t resist.

Wolf prepared a pasta dish, only to fall victim to a severe case of scombroid food poisoning. He passed away shortly after. That meal was his last.

For the first time ever, KIOSK held an open casket.

Wolf Vader

expired on 18-02-2025

Liana Geysen-Rymenants a.k.a BeRealBabe

TO ALL THE BOYS I FUCKED BEFORE

13.02.2025, 8 p.m.

A love letter to myself, a statement and a few lovely words of hate.
Given to the public in an audio fragment.
Unfiltered my opinion, my life, cuz let’s be real babe.
Tired of being silent, I bring to you, my words.

I hope you enjoy, or not, I don’t really care.

You know you love me!

XOXO

About Liana Geysen-Rymenants a.k.a BeRealBabe:

Coucou chouchou

I am a 23-year-old multidisciplinary artist, you can't really appropriate me to one medium.

From film, movement, sound, and text I try to translate the chaotic ideas that float around in my chaotic head.

I value humor, playfulness, and ultimately the pleasure of the audience.

Leaving behind a feeling, a thought, a revelation, that grabs hold of your subconscious over your shoulder.

I started my artistic career in PIKOH on stage, and theater before I turned my focus to Performance art at the KASK. Now I let go of my chaotic artistic head in the master of fine arts.

In my ongoing project, I am very focused on how I am perceived as a person in this society. From a feminist perspective, I analyze my life.

And of course what I love most, a big fuck you served on creamy criticism of our society that is incapable of living together.

SUCK MY CLIT.

Julia Schouten

looking for love in all the wrong places

13.02.2025, 7 p.m.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Julia Schouten thinks out loud about looking for love in all the wrong places, be it in the eyes of a stranger or the embrace of an art institution. Her reading is part of an ongoing research project on love and will be in English.

Julia Schouten’s practice dwells on the absurdities of wanting to be an artist. She trained as an art historian, a gallery assistant, then a painter. Currently based in Antwerp, Julia will return to London in the spring.

rachel zeba

because you are so am i

13.02.2025 + 24.02.2025, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

because you are so am i is a photographic project constructed in layers, a collection of moments and movements. the final visuals seek to represent the power of transformed realities that interact.

These photographs, which were already perfect for me, surprised me and became something more: a blending, a mixing, a melting pot of colors, shapes, and signs. something that's not very legible. It is no longer a question of reason, but of feeling. and perhaps it was necessary to tear apart the image, too clear, too literal, too accessible, to reveal what's hidden in it, its substance. its destruction allows its transcendence.

The physical expression of the tearing, chaotic presence added to the bodies captured in the image itself, evokes the street billboard torn apart by strangers in a moment of greed, love, revolt, compulsion, impulse, rage, carelessness...

This project, like many of my works in general, revolves around faith and trust, certainly in the process, but here the element of light brings the glorification of the body, of the other.

I want to illuminate the traces of life as proof of your existence. your existence proves my existence.

rachel zeba

rachel zeba is a visual artist based in Brussels. Her work is based on personal experience and reflection. Using photography, video, sculpture, and installation, constantly questions the Other. Its presence, its origins, its emotions. She creates hybrid forms that straddle the line between the real and the strange, the figurative and the abstract, the tangible and the spiritual. Her creative process involves obsession, play, and surrender.

Arthur Saint-Remy

Posterior Hot Zone

13.02.2025, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Posterior Hot Zone is a live render installation of a virtual dreamworld. Extracted by a Fitbit smartwatch, this virtual landscape translates sleep data and morphs in response to various sleep stages—light sleep proliferates mountains, deep sleep nurtures vegetation, and REM sleep distorts the environment, while heart rate variations influence the digital weather conditions. This online quasi-ephemeral world will replay my night of sleep at KIOSK.

The final result and duration of the screening will depend on the quality of my night’s sleep at KIOSK. You won’t observe dramatic changes in the dream landscape over brief periods; it lives by the slowness of inner rhythms, contrasting the fast-paced demands of waking life and highlighting differences in how we perceive time while awake versus dreaming. In a world increasingly driven by the commodification of personal data, the work critiques the encroachment of productivity into our most intimate and unconscious moments. By turning sleep into an act of productivity, the project questions the value systems underpinning global capitalism and its obsession with constant performance.

Arthur Saint-Remy

Arthur Saint-Remy (Belgium, 2002) lives and works in Antwerp, mostly with computers.

Rosa Lut

An exercise in connection and separation #4

11.02.2025, 2.30 p.m.

An exercise in connection and separation #4 is a performance by Rosa Lut, in which she tries to get a grasp on the space in-between. She divides up the room and the audience with blue lines, to explore what it’s like to be separated from each other. The lines make visible the distance between us, marking the place where one thing ends and the other begins. But can these lines also be a place of longing, a place of desire for what’s on the other side?

As a pre-master student Autonomous Design, Rosa Lut (she/her) has been researching borders as a potential place for connection. By visiting and documenting the border between Belgium and her birth country, The Netherlands, she explores what it’s like to be on the line between two cultures. Recent political developments are showing the urgency of redefining this space, not only as a place where two things are separated, but also as a place where two things come together, which is what Rosa tries to do in her work.

Jinte De Greef

Katleen

04.02.2025, 10:00/11:00 a.m.

Jinte De Greef (they/them) presented their project Katleen, inspired by the act of collecting fallen leaves from the KASK & Conservatorium Bijloke campus. Together with their class, they carefully washed the leaves, transforming a simple gesture into a meaningful ritual. The first-year Bachelor’s students in Performance took part in this collective act of cleansing. The placement of the leaves in the exhibition space became a ritual in itself—a shared, contemplative gesture.

Thank you to fellow classmates: Zita Bruyland (she/her), James Van Cauwenberghe (they/them, he/him, she/her), Wolf Vader (he/him), Grim Mignon (he/him), Andres Bernal (he/him). Teacher: Heike Langsdorf (she/her)

Erisa Bakalli

10 RULES OF DIFFERENT MANIFESTOES

25.01.2025, 4:30 p.m.

On January 25th, during the opening of the Abstract Entities exhibition, La Soldadera will rise at KIOSK, carrying with her ten amendments: the 10 rules of the Avant-Garde. La Soldadera, a pivotal figure inspired by Mexican revolutionaries, or as she would call herself, "a social propagandist," will remain still for 45 minutes. Armed only with a simple notebook, she will measure the distance between herself and the objects that no longer welcome her touch—objects once revered as relics of her rebellion. Inert, yet defiant. Rejecting creation in its entirety.

La Soldadera invites visitors to observe and reflect on this quiet, yet profound act. She encourages them to take photos, to document the moment, and to share these images. Be sure to follow her journey on Instagram, where revolution doesn’t always have to be present, but lives on through its documentation. Welcome!

Paco Rojas

Silent Spring

25.01.2025, 6:00 p.m.

Francisco presents an intimate sonic reflection on climate change through two delicate works. Performing his own composition, inspired by the work of Thomas Hitchcock, alongside Music to Watch a Puddle Dry by Maria del Pilar Miralles, he explores fragility, stillness, and environmental transformation. These quiet pieces invite the audience to engage in deep listening, evoking the subtle yet profound shifts in our changing world.

Francisco Rojas (1996, Spain) is a flute and piccolo performer based in Antwerp. His career spans chamber and orchestral music, with a focus on creating performances that immerse audiences in diverse sonic landscapes while addressing climate change concerns. He is also the producer and creator of The Flute Space, a podcast that serves as a platform for young artists. Currently, he is part of the artistic direction of Rhizome Ensemble and he is part of different music ensembles as Anima Duo.

Abstract Entities

Abstract Entities, Thomas Hitchcock's first institutional solo exhibition in Belgium, delves into the intersections of Art Nouveau and Europe’s fin de siècle cultural period and contemporary technological developments. Situated within the context of today’s global capitalism and digital shifts, he critically examines and juxtaposes themes of exploitation within a broader movement of retreating into interiority and dream-like realms.

Hitchcock’s newly created sculptural installation, within KIOSK’s former anatomical theater, also functions as an open platform for temporary interventions by Belgian art students. A multitude of different interventions across several media will take place throughout the exhibition period, including performances, music, collective readings, talks, workshops, discussions, body practices, poetry, and screenings – starting with the first contributions during the opening.

Practical information about the exhibition

• Opening on Saturday the 25th of January 2025, between 3 and 6 p.m.
• Open daily between 12.00 and 6.00 p.m.
• Open until 16.03.2025
  
• Free entrance
• Louis Pasteurlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

This exhibition was produced in collaboration with Phileas - The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, and with the support of the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES) of Austria.