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 !
BIOGRAPHY
“I invite you to embark on a journey through my work—a narrative exploration where stories serve as our guiding threads. For it is through stories that we bridge our humanity, weaving connections that transcend time and space, shaping our very existence.”
Els Dietvorst’s practice is remarkably diverse and comprises drawings, prints, sculptures, installations, films and documentaries, performative actions, and one-act plays. She uses dialogue, experiment and intuition as her main artistic strategies. 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 work has always had at its core issues such as massive migration, social conflict, homelessness, nature, climate change, and our own mortality. Inspired by the holistic approach of regenerative agriculture, she brings forward the concept of ‘regenerative art’.
Regenerative art explores creative processes that integrate social and natural systems, using art to reinvigorate the bonds between human communities and the ecosystem in which they live. It uses the work processes to create healing within the environment and communities in the whole.
In september 2015 she was selected for the Moscow Biennal of Contemporary Art along with Luc Tuymans(B), Fabrice Hyber(F), Liam Gillick(USA), Gabriel Lester(NL), Li Mu(CN).
In 2017 she was chosen by an international jury to win the 2-yearly Evens Arts Prize 2017.
In 2018 she won the Prize for Anthropology and Sustainable Development at the prestigious International Jean Rouch festival in Paris with her film 'I watched the white dogs of the dawn'.
In 2020, many of these works were remade again for the exhibition *Dooltocht/A desperate quest to find a base for hope at MHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp). She is currently researcher on a PhD: "Partisans of the Real" at the Royal Academy / University of Antwerp.
Dietvorst is the winner of the BelgianArtPrize 2021.
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(c)Els Dietvorst, foto: Flor Maesen