Brecht Heytens l Functions
In partnership with Museion Bozen, ewo invited young Belgian artist Brecht Heytens to take part in ewoLAB 2017, an artist residency program.
„Functions“
With his series “Functions”, Heytens above all else provokes contrasts within his works. He juxtaposes the materiality of a massive wooden frame with the immaterial medium of light in the form of neon tubes. The stability that is suggested by the linear and geometric shapes and the structure of the works is misleading: the wooden frame is in fact secured only at the end by a thin cable which keeps the construction in balance through tension. Heytens demonstrates playfulness here, behind which, though, is hidden ingenious structural engineering and interaction with the space. The connection with the space is therefore an important detail for the existence and activation of Heytens’ works.
Within the framework of ewoLAB, two works by Heytens were made accessible to the public within the exhibition “Functions” from February 9 to March 9, 2017 in the studio building and in the second floor of the Museion Bolzano, with another work in the foyer of ewo in Kurtatsch.
At the same time, in a one month artist residency in the former ewo metalworks in the Sarntal, Heytens was working on another installation called "Counterparts Projecting".

© Luca Meneghel
„Functions“ at Museion in Bolzano

© Luca Meneghel
„Functions“ at Museion in Bolzano
„Counterparts Projecting“
The work, “Counterparts Projecting” by Brecht Heytens, combines the artist’s aesthetics and way of working with ewo’s technology and know-how. As with most of his works, for this installation Heytens used materials such as metal and wood – the decision for this has both functional and aesthetic reasons.
After an introduction to lighting technology by ewo, Heytens decided to also include it in his work. Heytens’ choice fell upon a cold white (6000 K) right/left lens which features particularly asymmetric and beacon-like shining characteristics. In his search for another material that reflects light or lets it shine through as a result of its transparency, Heytens hit upon a perforated metal plate with a square grid pattern that offered him both possibilities.
Heytens plays with light and shadows – the lenses that are embedded in the wooden frame intentionally shine through the grid plate, with several projection surfaces resulting around the artwork. The shadows that are thrown by the grid pattern are mildly deformed depending upon the shining of the light, bringing lightness and dynamics into the work that otherwise appears constructive and static.

© Luca Meneghel
„Counterparts Projecting“ at Museion in Bolzano

© Luca Meneghel
„Counterparts Projecting“ at Museion in Bolzano
In addition to the interplay of material and form, Heytens searches in his works for a physical area of conflict. He achieves this, for example, by challenging physical laws such as gravity. “Counterparts Projecting” thus consists of two identical counterparts in the form of two frames. They are constructed at the central intersection in such a way that they can only be pushed through each other at a certain angle, thus mutually supporting each other and preventing each other from falling. The two frame constructions “work” continuously on carrying each other and consequently themselves – the artwork is thus constantly under tension.

© ewo
The origins of “Counterparts Projecting” at ewo's forge in Sarentino

© ewo
The origins of “Counterparts Projecting” at ewo's forge in Sarentino
„Plastered Neon“
With “Plastered Neon”, Brecht Heytens demonstrates another facet of his work, in which he experiments with the material plaster within a performative process of creation, that is, throwing the plaster against the wall. Heytens’ work is thus in direct physical relation to the space, the blot-like shapes of the plaster form a formal contrast to the linearity of the neon tubes.

© Luca Meneghel
„Plastered Neon“ at Museion

© Luca Meneghel
„Plastered Neon“ at Museion
The artist
Brecht Heytens was born in 1989 in Leuven, Belgium.After graduating in sculpture from the KASK (Koninklijk Conservatorium) in Ghent, he continued his studies at the Sint Lukas Akademie in Brussels, from which he earned his Master of Fine Arts in 2016. Heytens lives and works in Brussels.
In his works, he explores formal and dimensional levels as well as the boundaries and functions of materials. He experiments with the possibilities of a material by removing it from its necessity, in that way getting closer to it in an objective way and, in the end, placing it in a new context. The artist creates his large format installations above all else from rough, stark materials such as metal, wood, and plaster.
Video: Brecht Heytens

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