ewo is in motion. We are connecting. With different people, new markets, other cultures. We willingly accept, endorse and support external influences since we believe that the answers to the requirements and challenges of our time can be found through such connections and dialogues. ewoLAB initiates projects with artists, designers and architects and in doing so deals with the subject of light on various levels.
MARCH 2017 - ARTIST RESIDENCY WITH BRECHT HEYTENS - INTRO
At ewo, discussions focusing on the topic of light are an everyday affair. Every day, in fact, the company develops application-oriented lighting solutions for a variety of different projects. Creativity and innovation live off of different perspectives – that is why for the ewoLAB 2017 ewo in partnership with the Museion Museum of Contemporary Art in Bolzano, invited the young Belgian artist Brecht Heytens for an artist residency.
In his works, Heytens 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.
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".
BRECHT HEYTENS FOR EWOLAB
REPORT
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COUNTERPARTS PROJECTING
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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.
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.
OPENING FEBRUARY 9TH 2017 - "FUNCTIONS" AT MUSEION BOZEN
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EXHIBITION "FUNCTIONS" AT MUSEION BOZEN
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Brecht Heytens
Functions
09.02. - 09.03.17
Museion Bozen & ewo HQ Kurtatsch
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.
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.
BRECHT HEYTENS
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http://brechtheytens.tumblr.com/