Duo exhibition Kristof Van Heeschvelde + Younes Baba-ali

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Kristof Van Heeschvelde + Younes Baba-ali

The duo exhibition “Mirror, Mirror, …” allows the oeuvres of contemporaries Younes Baba-ali and Kristof Van Heeschvelde to enter into a dialogue from a limited selection of recent works.

Baba-ali and Van Heeschvelde are two idiosyncratic artists who take a critical attitude towards society, the individuals that populate it and the institutions that organize it.

As observers, however, they do not put themselves on the sidelines, but deliberately step into its center, they regard themselves as part of the same society and therefore of the issues they raise. Baba-ali and Van Heeschvelde realize that they nourish themselves from the society they hold up a mirror to.

Opening [removed], between 4pm – 8pm

Visits upon reservation via Eventbrite

Closing [removed], between 4pm – 8pm

V2Vingt, 20 rue Vanderlindenstraat, 1030 Brussels

Kristof Van Heeschvelde

Kristof’s work focuses on the behavior of homo sapiens, as Yuval Noah Harari describes it in his book, and the world he created for himself. Through a collage technique, Kristof places various elements together that at first sight have nothing to do with each other and that cannot or do not want to enter into a relationship with each other. At the same time, these composite realities are like a razor-sharp observation of human being and acting. Kristof counteracts this critical view by allowing humor and a naive color palette to creep into his work.

Kristof works on large canvases that he hangs freely in the room, often not stretched. In this way the painting is detached from its medium and the dimensions are extended beyond the framework of the canvas. The painting does not stop at the edge of the canvas, but continues and forms a composition with all the other canvases and lines in the space.

The painting thus becomes an installation work in which the viewer is invited to wander around and discover the many layers in Van Heeschvelde’s work. These layers are built around a dominant composition that deliberately guides the viewer’s gaze along a multitude of details, layers of paint, language and art-historical references to the old masters. The whole is not the sum of the canvases, but of the canvases in a composition with the space.

Kristof Van Heeschvelde (° 1971), lives and works in Ghent.

Younes Baba-ali

Younes Baba-ali creates art that is unconventional, intelligent and critical, usually in public space or in places that are not obvious. He is a keen observer and asks pertinent questions to society, the institute, but also and especially to his audience. As a freethinker, he holds up a mirror to society and thus exposes its entrenched habits and dysfunctions. Baba-ali’s work often presents itself as readymade, but beneath this apparent simplicity hides a complex balancing act. As an artist-alchemist, he doses and combines technology, utensils, sound, video and photography with political, social and ecological issues. The resulting installations move the unsuspecting spectator to take a stand. Baba-ali does not shy away from controversy and is therefore often forced to subtly negotiate his art and its right to exist with its environment. It is always context-specific and only gets its real shape in dialogue with the audience. It is disruptive intervention art that confronts the viewer with himself and his environment in a sometimes ironic way. Baba-ali presents people with dilemmas and taboos and challenges them to (re) action. In this way he makes them his accomplices in a hidden artistic guerrilla that unites both the establishment and the common man in the street.

Younes Baba-ali (° 1986) born in Oujda (Ma), lives and works in Brussels (Be) & Casablanca (Ma).

Current exhibitions:

​Philippe Van Wolputte

[removed] – [removed] ‘Miniheim’, group exhibition, Forbidden City Antwerp (Belgium)​

Bilal Bahir

[removed] – [removed] ‘Porous City’/’Poreuze Stad‘, group exhibition Triënnale Brugge (Belgium)

Daems van Remoortere

ongoing ‘After Hours’, an ode to Gordon Matta-Clark, Blikfabriek, Hoboken (Belgium)

photo credits: Axl Himburg + Younes Baba-ali