This article was published in interalia magazine many years ago. It is about the role of 'the heart' in my work. Enjoy...

Nietsvermoedend passeerde ik vroeger dagelijks langs de eerder onopvallende garagepoort in Gentbrugge waarachter het atelier van Chantal Pollier schuilt. De kunstenaar en curator ontvangt me in haar winteratelier, waar een schetstafel uitkijkt op de krulwilg op de binnenkoer.
Tussen de potloden en schetsboeken liggen stukjes kant. Voor een beeldhouwer een atypisch materiaal, maar sinds Pollier het voor een eerder werk gebruikte, is ze in de ban van het oude  ambachtelijke proces. En in bewondering voor het verbluffende gemak waarmee ze eeuwen geleden de detaillering van stof in steen wisten te kappen, om zo het lichte, fragiele van het textiel te verbeelden.


Lees de rest van het artikel hier

 The first work of Brancusi that I saw, was one of his bronze muses in Centre Pompidou. I was fourteen years old and It was my first visit and stay in Paris, with the children from the weekend Academy and our teacher Patrick Ysebaert. Centre Pompidou was so futuristic, so apart from what I was used to see, that I was hugely impressed and overwhelmed. And then I noticed a small sculpture in bronze: a female head lying on tis side. I passed it with my group and something pulled me back to the work. The form, the way the head was presented, the elegance, ... And I stayed and looked at the bronze heard for over fifteen minutes. Just looking. The first sculpture that really touched me. Brancusi...

'Create like a God. Command like a king. Work like a slave' - Brancusi

One of my masters.
​Still working like a slave...
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I once saw a gravestone in the old buildings of St Baafs Abbey in Ghent with two male figures carved as basrelief.
This tombstone of Egidius Munte (+1419), pastor of the Gentbrugge church and Willem Ketels (+1403), pastor of the Sint-Jacobskerk in Ghent, shows the clergymen depicted in half elevated relief as gisants. The edge lettering is interrupted on the corners by the symbols of the evangelists and in the middle of the long sides by the coats of arms of the dead.
 I always remembered the two figures. The folds of their robes, the expression on their faces, the patina that was probably partly caused by the many touches of people over the centuries. A serenity and harmony that moves and fascinates me.

A third reason to use bas relief, is that the relief sculpture in stone has a history going 20,000 years back in time, in both Eastern and Western culture. With relief, the focus is on contours more than on line, and people make eager use of light and the creation of shadows (this is also called chiaroscuro). The kind of relief that I have in mind is a sunken relief or Intaglio.
I went to England and visit the British Museum to research the ways in which people carved sculptures through the ages and in different cultures, to then make my own modest contribution to this beautiful long tradition.

The altar being an altar

 The old chapel of the Eeklo College, built in 1866, had become too small. In 1936, a new chapel was erected above the study of interns on the first floor. On Thursday, July 1, 1937, the new chapel was inaugurated and opened.
The altar of this chapel was built exclusively from Belgian stones. Bluestone for the table top , Walloon grey marblestone for the massive pillars, black Belgian "Noir de Mazy" for the pedestals. The altar was so heavy that it had to be placed in the chapel before the walls were built around it. On 16 April 2018, the old college buildings went down, they had to make way for a green zone on the new campus of the OLV Ten Doorn college. The chapel on the first floor also had to disappear. However, the school saved the altar from demolition. A spectacle followed with a hole in the side wall on the first floor, a floating altar of 3800 kg and a giant crane. Once on the ground floor, the altar was "disassembled" and the various pieces transferred to my studio with great difficulty.
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Regional newspaper and TV: 
https://www.hln.be/regio/eeklo/kraan-haalt-altaar-van-3-500-kilo-uit-oude-kapel-ten-doorn~a642a938/
https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180329_03437523
https://youtu.be/jGBM9AqnLW8
 

​The altar in my studio

A while ago the altar ended up in various parts in my studio. A challenge.
I made a work for the exhibition "Healing / healing", which took place in Poperinge in 2018, as part of the commemoration of the first world war. The title of the installation is "Healing - diorama of a lost world". For the installation I made craters in four black marble blocks. Black marble is a very valuable stone because of its rarity ...
The installation was inspired by aerial photos of the totally destroyed West Flemish landscape during the first world war. Until recently, the black marble blocks were the supporting pillars of the altar. The work can be seen as a critical reflection on the complex contemporary society.


The 1800 kg heavy blue limestone table top is in my studio. Bluestone is a very common stone in our Walloon and French-Flemish subsurface. The hard limestone is approximately 400 million years old. It contains many fossilized shells, polyps (bee nests) and sponge fossils. The sedimentary rock originated in a shallow maritime area due to the tangling of crinoids in a calcite cement. The bluish color is determined by the presence of plant remains. If you sculpt in it, a rotting scent is released. A 400 million year old fragrance. Confrontations with the temporary are never far away. The stone is also called stink lime.


I decided to make a relief sculpture for various reasons. First: because I want to keep the original shape of the altarpiece at all costs, I am limited in my possibilities. When making a relief, I can leave the edges untouched, keep the crosses, ... Within the limitations imposed on me, creating a relief figure offers me many possibilities.
Secondly: I once saw a gravestone in the old buildings of St Baafs Abbey with two male figures carved from the stone as bas relief. 

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Een bijzondere groepstentoonstelling in het begijnhof van de lange violettestraat te Gent. Veertig kunstenaars, op de pleintjes van het begijnhof, in de kerk, in de st. Godelievekapel, en in vele huisjes. Ook nog volgend weekend 25/5 en 26/5. 

My first morning on Zakynthos Island. I woke up at 5, with a beautiful sunrise and just the sound of a far away dog, some birds... What a beautiful way to start my first day of sculpting on this big limestone block.  Zakynthos is difficult to put into words, impressionate, rocky, and the colors here are so different from Belgium that my eyes and brain have to get used to it. 

The Vesalius monument is made in clay by forensic artist Richard Neave and medical artist Pascale Pollier. On the photo you can see part of the sculpture in wax, some last preparations (Dimitri, Pascale and myself) before casting it into bronze. The bronze foundry Ginsberg-Declercq are doing a great job! I'll keep you informed about the progress. 

On the 23th of April the opening of this exhibition in the most wonderful place. Welcome!

I made the coat of arms of Andreas Vesalius in three dimensions after drawings provided to me by Maurits Biesbrouck, Omer Steeno and Theodoor Gooderis. On the first page of his famous work 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica', Vesalius had his coat of arms above the scene where he performes a dissection in front of a huge audience. The three weasels refer to his flemish name 'Van Wesele'. 
I made the model in plastiline, then casted it in polyester. This model went through the computer where a three-D scan was made.  The CNC-machine was used to come to this result: there is approx. 0,5cm that needs to be taken away everywhere. I have to do all the undercuts and polish the stone. Black marble is very hard to deal with as a sculptor: it breaks like glass, leaving you with extremely hard edges. I can hardly sculpt with chisel and hammer, have to use fine grinding material like my dremel and so... But I love it!!

During World War I many soldiers fell victim to bizarre, anxious and disturbed behaviour, which was referred to as ‘shellshock’. The army commanders faced a dilemma: were they really traumatised or were they simply cowards who were trying to stay away from the extremely terrifying front? Should they be evacuated or sent back? And what was the best way to treat shellshock? The exhibitionSoldiers and psychiatrists 1914-2014 explores the focus on and dealings with mental suffering during the Great War, but also focuses on more recent conflicts of the past century. How do psychiatrists currently deal with soldiers with posttraumatic stress syndrome? Is there more understanding? And how do reporters and war photographers view acts of war and mental suffering?
Soldiers and psychiatrists portrays the mental consequences of warfare: from the first photos of shellshock and contemporary war photography to drawings of killed psychiatric patients during WWII. But war is sometimes very close: victims of rape and abuse suffer the same symptoms of PTSS. Soldiers and psychiatrists shows the evolution of the concept of trauma: from shellshock to posttraumatic stress syndrome, from 1914 to 2014. (from the site museum dr. Guislain)

In this exhibition there is one work you can see from me: 'Nursing Corps', with 5 backs of women and girls lying on the floor. This 'army' will grow stronger, as more backs will be made soon. My goal is to have a real 'corps' of at least more then 20 backs.