Glean magazine

 An long meandering talk with Els Roelandt fitted between the pages of Glean.

Detail with works by Yoko Enoki, Anat Maratkovich and me. Photo by Lieve Kleenen for GLEAN magazine, 2024.

A love for gardens seems to bring people together - even if our gardens are very different, and the same can be said of books, food and art. Perhaps art is unlike the other glues in our social structure, it seems Art with a capital A is elevated to a pedestal, and with all respect and wonder, that's not how I look at art. I'm glad to have met Els who also harbours a plurality of perspectives in her concept of art. Stepping down from artificial heights onto the ground, into the garden and down a tiny path made from old concrete stepping stones, this conversation with Els went to the tangible and earthly reality. It's where art meets the other, the animals, the critters, plants, fungi, and more.

 

Photo by Lieve Kleenen for GLEAN magazine, 2024

Detail from the text in GLEAN

 

Photo by Lieve Kleenen for GLEAN magazine, 2024

 

We met on a rainy day, with Lieve Kleeven taking beautiful photos while we talked over tea. Els Roelandt is passionate about lots of things I also care about, and it was a very nice conversation where I could easily forget that this was more than a casual meeting of friends. We talked about the importance of seeing the whole picture about the genocide and ecocide going on in Palestine, how the people and the land and the trees and the flowers all belong together. We talked bout what it was like to study in the nineties and how a young artist at the time had no support to set up a carreer. We talked about a book festival in the garden, and queer icons, about so much and yet it didn't feel as if the conversation was finished. The real talk was too long for the text between the pages of Glean Magazine, and I'm sad to say not everything I wanted to share could fit in there. But that's normal. While choosing what should stay and what could go - we decided to focus on painting & ecology - a decision we made because my paintings are not often shown in public and I am glad to share them in GLEAN. It was a nice choice, especially because my work is about LGBTQIA+ themes and this requires the right background information.

 

But ... a mistake was made. In the text it seems as if Extra City and Morpho arrived late to the garden, and that is not true. Morpho vzw is new and at the time this organization went under a different name: Studio Start. This organization took up the responsibility to convert the monastery in Ploegstraat into studios for artists, in 2016. Studio Start was joined by the local artists' residency organization and renamed AAIR and later joined by Extra City, in 2020. Together they create a complex and multifunctional area for artists to be present in the city, to have a workspace, to show work, to create events, to perform, to meet other artists etc. The people working behind the scenes of Morpho vzw took up the important task to improve their role in how we want to see the art field. As a studio occupant I could feel the changes directly, I could see the diversity in the arts within the building and reflected in their program. This is really important. Art is not something falling out of the sky, it is made from the ground up by people who have a choice, and what we see in the art world is the result of many people deciding to use their voice in a certain way. Morpho has been doing a great job in providing below the market price art spaces to all kinds of artists and I cannot imagine an art scene in Antwerp without the artists being present within the city boundaries. 

But aside this mistake, I am incredibly glad to be given this opportunity, and I would like to thank Els and Lieve for this experience and for supporting my work. The magazine covers lots of interesting art and they make a difference in how we like to look at contemporary issues around us. Thank you so much for inviting me in and sharing my paintings and garden practices.

 

Photo Chantal Akerman, Collections Cinematek & Chantal Akerman Foundation, © Jane Stein

Interview by Els Roelandt

Photos in the photos: Lieve Kleenen

Part of GLEAN 5, May issue, this talk is published in Dutch

https://archief.glean.art

https://morphoantwerp.be