Bram Vanderbeke, a look behind the scenes His work embodies the process, makes it visible and traceable, allows you to find out how his creations came about. How they a;est to a bodily commitment, a proof of labour that tempts you to imagine the scene where the works were conceived. The atelier where Bram Vanderbeke, equipped with preparatory sketches and models, stacks and arranges the bricks like moulds, where the wood waits to be processed and the foam constellations offer a prospect of their likeness cast in metal. His anticipation as he searches for shapes and for volumes. The joy he takes in exploring and building, in imagining something that does not yet exist but is gradually emerging. It's a dedication to materiality in its elemental capacity. To the expressive quality of unpolished concrete, to the sheen of aluminium that shows only where it has been sanded or was gently touched by an otherwise ruthless grinding wheel. Which makes him prefer to act decisively. Whereby an idea or mental image is promptly transformed into a substantial state, occupying space, allowing it to progress from a tangible reality. An approach that is therefore essentially experimental, determined by experiencing and probing, and informed by his knowledge of how materials react. How they respond to tools and procedures, how they can be craIed and manipulated in such a way that they express something that stands out, robust, yet as delicate as it is solid. A process that unfolds while doing is intrinsically receptive to what changes along the way, the sketches and models perhaps previsions, but never a fixed intention. Coincidence also plays a role, with findings presenting themselves unexpectedly. What is likewise true of the nature of the objects, their functionality, if any, not seldom contingent, secondary to a sculptural singularity with which the work manifests itself in a space or a given context. Sometimes that functionality is even no more than an aIerthought, as the resulting form is unconsciously nourished by archetypes that lurk in his mind, impose themselves circumstan9ally and as such refer to, rather than realise. All of this is equally about textures and the treatment of surfaces, about devising his own methods that lend the works their evident authenticity. Their patina and cachet that is as contemporary as it is historic, and that can only be achieved through a zealous effort. So that is what he does, whether working with wood, metal or cast concrete, during the design and the realisation, and right through to the finishing touches. His studio both a laboratory and a workshop where Bram Vanderbeke searches and tries out, where he shapes his own visual jargon, surrounded by what he has completed, by what is gradually brought into being, or is no more than a rudimentary suggestion. An arrangement or a sample of what is yet to come.
Text by Jonas Lescrauwaet
