Location: Leuvenstraat 32 (exhibition Kroonstraat 166), 2000 Antwerp (BE)
Bie Michels (°1960) makes video installations and paintings. Inconspicuous things, simple stories, small feelings and actions, in which she experiences a grandeur, fascinate her.
For the project TRACINGS, Analogies and dissonances, Michels works on the dividing line between installation art, video art and documentary. As a visual artist she ‘infiltrates’ in the Kringwinkel (Thrift Store) of Antwerp and goes in search of conversations and images. She sees the Recycling Center as a repository for a multitude of objects, a workshop for people from different backgrounds, a melting pot of nomadic events, but above all as a crossroads of stories.
For a year, Michels ‘worked’ in the Recycling Center and created a different mental space through her presence as an artist. Intimate, with only a small camera. In close-up and medium close, objects, people and actions were observed and testimonies recorded. Michels works closely to the skin of people and objects. The closer, the more complicated and disruptive their relationship proves to be. Objects are understood differently by different people. This is expressed in a personal language. (Read more)
Curator Liliane Dewachter
Photos by M HKA
Accompanying publication TRACÉS/TRACINGS with contribution from Dieter Roelstraete, Rik Pinxten, Christophe Van Eecke, Ellen Reymers.
Articles in M HKAzine (Dutch): MHKAzine09_blz24-25, MHKAzine11_blz43
Articles in HART (Dutch): HART093_blz12
Article by Paul Ilegems in theartserver (Dutch): ‘Tracés-Tracings’: een rondreis in het walhalla van het object