Els Dietvorst

"I am going to take you on a tour through my work. It will be a story tour because stories are what link us as humans. Stories make us exist, make us connect through time and space."

Els Dietvorst (°1964) is a socially engaged artist. She uses dialogue, experiment and intuition as her main artistic strategies. Ever since the 1990s, she has been moved by social issues such as migration, racism and climate change. Dietvorst reflects on the human condition. As a result, major themes such as life and death, anxiety, alienation and desire are addressed in her work. She focuses particularly on the position of the outsider, pointing her gaze to/aiming her attention at those people and events that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Her choice of medium, whether it be actions, documentaries, films, mud sculptures, installations, drawings or theater texts, depends on the specific circumstances and the individual nature of each project. Many of her artworks have therefore been given away or destroyed, or have perished.

In 2020, many of these works were remade again for the exhibition *Dooltocht/A desperate quest to find a base for hope at M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp). She is currently researcher on a PhD: "Partisans of the Real" at the Royal Academy / University of Antwerp.

Welcome !

Els Dietvorst

Back

(c)Els Dietvorst Archief, scan: M HKA, 2019

Skull 1, 1999

Els Dietvorst

Sculpture

loam, wood, sackcloth

"the skull" the empty head of the world

dead structure, bone and loam

eyeless eye sockets, Neanderthal wiped out by man

this same man fighting for existence in a country, already too small for existence

the survival of the fittest, the fittest sculpture

the one that no longer seems to fit

- Orla Barry

Sculpture is beside drawing, writing and video an important medium in my artpractice. I started the Skull-series out of disbelieve and anger on the black pages of human history. The Skull-sculptures became a metaphor for useless violence and a symbol for human respect, gathering and transcendance.

The first sculpture (SKULL1-1999) was a huge skull, made of wood and loam, build in my studio in Brasschaat (Antwerp) which was on that time in the middle of a military base.

The form of every skull is based on the skull of a Neanderthaler. The Neanderthaler is often pictured in history as a brute but was peacefull and shared peacefull rituals. They vanished when modern humans arrived in Europe. The teeth in all of the Skull-series are human beings refering to 'us' the people. Mostly I use natural materials as wood, loam and clay to give the sculptures a fragile skin.The Skull-sculptures also serve as a refuge, you can hide, shelter, meet in it. I see the Skull series as a strong symbol that links us and that belongs to us all, humans. I see it also as a fragile and at the same time strong metaphor against violence.

Els Dietvorst

Back