Els Dietvorst

NLEN

"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, photo: Els Dietvorst, Bannow, 2020
Coastal Shrine, 2020
Els Dietvorst
Sculpture

April 17th, 2020

Covid19 Temple – an poignant homage by the sea.

Wexford-based Belgian artist Els Dietvorst - whose recent exhibition “Dooltocht: a desperate quest to find a base for hope” at M HKA in Antwerp celebrated her last 20 years as an artist – has created a “shrine” composed of white stones to honour those who have suffered due to the current pandemic. 

Els Dietvorst, who lives by the sea in a low-populated area of Wexford, encountered a couple of stones that a girl had inscribed with the words: “Covid 19” and “I am bored.” Els then felt inspired to place several white stones around it and she kept doing it every day. After a week of working on it, Els noticed that anonymous walkers had also been contributing to the temple. She started this project in March and now the installation has well over 500 stones. 

There are many sacred places throughout the world where pilgrims used to travel to in an effort to connect to a special energy. Covid19 Temple  is nested in a memorable place that can only be reached after walking for thirty minutes in a desolate area. It entails a different kind of pilgrimage. One that shows how despite the fact that our world is a completely different place from what it was 4 months ago, the need to connect and honour those who suffer is greater than ever. 

Els’s prolific body of work has always had at its core issues such as massive migration, social conflict, homelessness, nature, climate change, and our own mortality. She prefers to work in collaboration with others so it is only fitting that despite current limitations Els organically found a way to continue working “with others” in the creation of a “temple”. 

Art historian Karla Sánchez said: “Coivd 19 Temple is not only touching and meaningful to Els Dietvorst but to all of us. As our humanity is tested more than ever in this generation we have to keep reaching out for one another, even from a distance, and find hope in our company.”

 

Back