Premio Combat Prize

Artwork description:
Moule en Verre
The Work ”Moule en Verre” is a glass object composed out of 6 pieces. It is produced through the technique of glass casting. The object is like a puzzle where each individual piece has its position and together creates the formal composition.
The object was created out of a residency at the CIRVA (Centre International du Verre et Arts Plastiques) in Marseille, which was lead by the research in material, form and the questions of beauty. The Moule en Verre, is an ”exact” replica of an actual mould that was used to cast an other work, produced during this residency. Through reproducing it in the material of glass, the use of a mould got defunctionalized and a new value was added, not only on the new production but also on the original mould since this mould would be the only model to create the Moule en Verre. Between disfunctionalisation materiality and aesthetic questions, the single gesture of recreating a copy in a new material, an interchangeable dialogue of fragility and beauty came to light between the created ”art work” and its original source. The Moule en Verre is not only unfolding and repositioning the question of beauty and fragility but actually embodying it. Through pushing the possibilities of glass creation to its limits, this object becomes a poem around these questions and concepts that don’t have to be answered by words, but as in this case, by a composition of elements.
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Biography:
Lieven De Boeck is a Belgian artist whose work develops simultaneously on two main levels. On the one hand, he makes observations about the public domain, which surrounds us and defines our daily reality as well as the context of any art practice. On the other hand, he focuses on his overall project called ”the dictionary of space – An Archive of Disappearance”, which formulates concepts dealing with themes and notions such as occupation, appropriation, borders, territories, representation, absence and identity. This dictionary or archive has been developed in different contexts from interventions in magazines, publications, performances, texts, drawings, models, installations, and video. De Boeck’s works are motivated by single events intruding his environment or personal presence that result in a material research to develop the paradox ideal between form and object. The oeuvre unfolds its self thus in a multitude of material such as foam, glass, mirror, textile, projection and neon among others, each mastered in its own potential.
Lieven De Boeck graduated from the Jan Van Eyck Academie in 2003. Since then De Boeck has been accepted to several renowned residencies such as the CIRVA, Marseille (2012-13), The RAID project, LA (2011-12), Künstlerhaus Büchsenhaus, Insbruck (2008-09) or the ISCP, NY (2006) to name a view. His oeuvre was represented in different solo and group exhibitions around Belgium at institutions such as Maison Gregoire, Brussels, CC Brugge, Brugge, Netwerk Aalst, Extra City, Antwerp or Z33 in Hasselt. Also internationally was his work widely presented at Art Miami, the Baker Museum, Florida, Lokaal 01 Breda, Sedhalle Zurich, Lmak Projects, NY, Witte de Witt, Rotterdam, the Darling Foundry in Montreal or most recently with a big Solo exhibition in the FRAC-PACA Marseille. Lieven De Boeck is currently represented by the gallery Meessen de Clercq in Brussels and his work was bought by different international public collections such as the Collection CIRVA, Marseille, MUDAC, Lausanne, FRAC, Marseille, De Vlaamse Overheid, the MoMa library, NY among several important private collections.
In 2014 Lieven De Boeck founded the studio LDB, a collaborative art practice that explores the oeuvre of artist Lieven De
Boeck. The studio develops and shares authorship through the concepts of reproduction, re-interpretation
and conceptual research on forms of presentation. In order to show hidden aspects of the work, alternative
ways of making the work public are explored.