Edition 2013

Just like her improvised music, built from loops, saturation, and distortions, Félicia Atkinson’s artistic practice consists of arrangements, improvisations, visions, and disruptions, bringing together visual elements, text, and sound. These installations, often placed on the floor or against a wall, can be seen as remnants of a mental journey or as small, mysterious constructions. Her often abstract paintings, drawings, and sculptures are influenced by American painting (Morris Louis, Cy Twombly, Richard Tuttle) and inspired by avant-garde modes of expression where chance and lack of structure play a role (Fluxus, John Cage, La Monte Young).

The installation Atkinson created for the Young Belgian Art Prize, THROUGH THE QUIET AXIS, ALL THE ROADS ARE CIRCULAR, refers to a rather long, cosmic, and contemplative sound piece she composed two years ago and is a homage to American painter Lowry Burgess. The installation is composed of various elements (watercolors, large canvases, sculptures, a book) and a range of materials (wood, clay, paper, silk, archival images…). The notions of the loop, the metamorphosis from drawing to sculpture, the wave, abstraction, the movement from the studio to the exhibition space, the refrain, chance, imagination, improvisation as an object, the plan, and the threshold: all these are themes addressed by the installation.

Félicia Atkinson lives and works in Brussels. In addition to her studies in anthropology and contemporary dance, she also graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. Her work has been exhibited at Kunsthalle Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Komplot in Brussels, Overgaden in Copenhagen, CAC La Criée Centre d’Art in Rennes, and MUCA ROMA in Mexico City. Atkinson has also released around a dozen records and books, mostly through Shelter Press.

Céline Butaye describes her works as “colored expectations,” reflections on time and space. “They attempt to be a ‘memory of the present’ (a concept by Henri Bergson), in order to eternalize it.” Discovery, loss, oblivion, memory, anticipation, chance, beginnings and endings, boundaries, changes, mistakes, and the contrast between original and replica all shape her work.

Réflexions. Special relativity; Chasing a Beam of Light (2013), created by Céline Butaye for the Young Belgian Art Prize, presents a collection of light beams and homemade prisms of various sizes, both opaque and transparent, with and without pigment. Butaye crafted them using epoxy resin and polyester, sometimes adding pigments and a lot of sandpaper. Each prism captures, breaks, reflects, and visualizes light. Some prisms split light into its spectral colors, others add color, glow in the dark, or simply project shadows. In a site-specific manner, groups of light seekers are scattered throughout the space. The floor and the architecture serve as pedestals for the prisms.

Céline Butaye lives and works in Ghent. She studied Experimental Graphic Design & Painting at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent and is a laureate of the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in Ghent.

The work Shelly Nadashi created for the Young Belgian Art Prize consists of a series of large pot-posters, scarecrow-like puppets, and a video. The scarecrows are small, but large enough to make young children either curious or frightened. Through a hole in their back, someone can take possession of their bodies and move them. The series of posters depicts a pot casting its shadow on paper in various positions, captured in paint in a way that recalls primitive printing techniques. The scarecrow puppets and pot-posters are interconnected in various ways. The film A Place for Commas and Dots links rhythmic movement and an abstract world of imagination with spoken text. The film tells the story of Mishka Kapoot, a pimp from the Soviet Union who has emigrated to Brussels. The monologue, narrated by the artist, is long-winded, overly complicated, and above all vulgar, and describes how Mishka dictates a threatening letter addressed to the wife of one of his associates. The complexity of Kapoot’s amoral tale is illustrated and contrasted with the spinning movement of a papier-mâché object, where crude language and HD technology meet.

Shelly Nadashi lives and works in Brussels. She studied at The School for Visual Theatre in Jerusalem and earned a Master’s degree at the Glasgow School of Art. Nadashi has exhibited at, among others, Manifesta 11 (2016), Dortmunder Kunstverein (2016), Extra City Kunsthal (2016), the New Museum Triennial (2015), and has participated in residencies at Palais de Tokyo (2014) and WIELS (2011).

Fabrice Pichat, with the air of a physicist or an experimental musician searching for the right sound, presented two installations for the Young Belgian Art Prize that further develop his research on vibrations. In Musique moins mélodie, low-frequency vibrations are transmitted to a structure made of construction fences and foam. In his experiments, Pichat gradually dampens the volume of the tone produced by the fences and attempts to approach silence as closely as possible, while visually the fencing appears blurred and wave-like motions become visible. In Construire, reconstruire, fragments of a broken glass plate are placed on black metal sheets and exposed to constant vibrations. The pieces of glass can be moved to restore the original shape, which can be done purely by sight due to the simplicity of the model. In this work, Pichat refers to control rooms in factories, where an operator stands behind a glass partition and manipulates, observes, and tests the space from a distance. In his installation, the position of the operator — here, the audience — is re-evaluated, as they have no control over the ultra-slow movements of the glass elements.

Fabrice Pichat lives and works in Brussels. He graduated in 2015 from the École d’Art in Annecy. He continued his studies in research groups such as Mots de passe Mots d’ordre, received a research grant from Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, and was awarded a fellowship and production studio at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.

Since 2005, Jasper Rigole has been working on his multimedia project The International Institute for the Conservation, Archiving and Distribution of Other People’s Memories (IICAVAH). At the heart of this project lies his archive of 8mm films, photographs, and objects. This ever-growing collection consists of found ‘ego-documents,’ mostly sourced from flea markets and second-hand shops. The artist transforms these memory documents into autonomous artworks using found footage techniques such as cut and paste. For the Young Belgian Art Prize, Rigole presented two film installations, Temps Mort and Attraction, each exploring a different category from his 8mm film archive.

Jasper Rigole graduated in 2004 from the film department of KASK in Ghent and later earned a PhD and postdoctoral degree in audiovisual arts there. He held solo exhibitions at S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2009), Z33 in Hasselt (2015), and De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam (2015). His work was also shown at the Bruges Triennial (2021), Kunsthal ExtraCity in Antwerp (2021), and Jiao Tong University in Shanghai (2013). His films have been screened at festivals such as IDFA (Amsterdam), IFFR (Rotterdam), BIEFF (Bucharest), and Courtisane (Ghent).

Helmut Stallaerts is primarily a painter but also creates installations, photographs, and films. The figure of the jester regularly appears in his work as a reflection on his role as an artist and on the broader concept of artistic practice within our society. The jester holds an exceptional freedom in relation to the ruling order; he can expose certain truths and inspire the public. However, as the ruling order becomes less visible and the complexity of the ‘malleable’ neoliberal society grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for the jester to perform his act. Stallaerts questions how he, as an artist, should position himself within this situation: what forms of artistic expression are still possible in a context where the illusion of speed and novelty, art as a commodity, and the drive for image-building dominate, and where indifference is all too often encountered? The question of power and power relations frequently recurs in Stallaerts’ work.

Helmut Stallaerts lives and works in Brussels. He graduated in 2004 from the LUCA School of Arts, campus Sint-Lukas Brussels, and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. Since 2011, he has been teaching at LUCA, campus Sint-Lukas Brussels, in the painting department. His work has been shown at De Warande in Turnhout (2004), Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2018), La Maison Rouge in Paris (2012), Be-Part in Waregem (2008), and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (2013).

Adrien Tirtiaux observes the world and experiments with it. Through his installations and constructions, he seeks to capture and transform our relationship with the environment, while subtly questioning the symbolic processes of socialization that are tied to it.

For the Young Belgian Art Prize the artist created Mise à niveau, a long wall standing 1.65 meters tall that impacted the entire exhibition space. The work was accompanied by a proposal to the other finalists to divide the prize money into nine equal parts of €6.944,44 each. In the final version of Mise à niveau, Tirtiaux presents the outcome of his interactions with the other artists, as well as his own ambivalence toward his proposal. He ordered 1.500 concrete blocks necessary for the construction of the intended wall and used a portion of them to isolate himself within his own space. In dialogue with this project, Tirtiaux also presented two interventions he realized in 2012, which reflect a similar negotiation process. The Great Cut, realized at the art center Stroom in The Hague at the end of 2012, was a proposal made to 18 employees to gradually amputate their workspace by 21%, the equivalent of the budget cuts the center was to face in 2013. The project MONUMENTALE ACADÉMIE responded to the upcoming relocation of the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours. Tirtiaux proposed to the professors and students to construct a monumental sphere 10 meters in diameter, spanning three floors.

Adrien Tirtiaux lives and works in Antwerp and is trained as an architect. He has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Kunsthalle São Paulo (2016) and IKOB in Eupen (2014). His work has also been shown at the Bruges Triennial (2024, 2021), M HKA in Antwerp (2021, 2019), Marta Herford (2020), Middelheim Museum in Antwerp (2018), Kunstverein München (2017), and De Appel in Amsterdam (2016). In 2018, he received the Mention Marc Feulien from the Fondation Marie-Louise Jacque as part of the Bernd Lohaus Prize.

The installations, interventions, and collages of Philippe Van Wolputte reveal or suggest the possibilities of abandoned, neglected locations that play a significant role in the memory and social landscape of a city, and that in a way possess their own beauty. The artist documents his interpretations of experiences during these interventions, and his strictly personal way of viewing these spaces, through photographs, videos, and collages. In his installations, he breathes new life into mysterious sites he discovers during his explorations. He investigates the functionality and potential of these places by transforming them into temporary shelters or workspaces for artists. In the images and documents he creates from his interventions, Van Wolputte plays with the fetishization of art documentation, causing fiction and reality to blur.

In his video Looking Back While Walking Forward, Van Wolputte follows a group of characters in a sort of fictional documentary, closely observing their urban exploration journey through his lens. The true purpose of their exploration and the identities of these individuals remain unclear, creating a disorienting game of hide-and-seek between fiction and reality.

Philippe Van Wolputte lives and works in Antwerp. He graduated from Sint-Lucas Antwerp in 2006. From 2008 to 2010, he was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. His work has been exhibited at, among others, M HKA in Antwerp (2021, 2015), Anthology Film Archives in New York (2019), Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn (2016), SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin (2013), and the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern (2008).