About

Emmanuel Van der Auwera

Emmanuel Van der Auwera lives and works in Brussels. He makes videos, photos, sculptures and installations with which cryptic perception of reality emerges from the political, historical or scientific context and references, which he includes in his work. The things he interacts with are on the verge of change. Engaged in metamorphosis they are phenomena that question the multiple dimensions of reality. They produce situations in which the logic is deconstructed and laid bare as they invite us to reflect on our relationship with the world.

Medias

The exhibition

VideoSculpture XI (Central Alberta) & LastWagen

In Emmanuel Van der Auwera's series of video sculptures, the notion of screen as window to reality is literally stripped of its flatness, symbolically revealing the underlying mechanics of a television through deconstruction by the artist's hand. These sculptures apply deconstructive analysis to the process of producing 'reality' using the screen (the altar of the contemporary image) as material for sculpture, and peeling back it's layers as a painter might do. In this movement, the medium and message are etched into each other and form a thin layer of film that is easily (and yet rarely) manipulated. It reminds the viewer that 'reality' is less so reflected than it is artificially shaped.

Lastwagen is part of a series of photographs printed on Plexiglas. A truck which has been x-rayed by customs authorities. The artist shows us the invisible which is generally hidden behind an opaque canvas cover but that is inspected from top to bottom and entirely scanned at the border customs. Does the truck carry any undeclared goods or human beings? Emmanuel Van der Auwera uses border control techniques to produce a series of images between transparency and negative. Through the lens of surveillance, he reveals another reality.

Medias