Ilse Michiels & Bart Luijten

Ilse Michiels (1970) took her first steps in form research as a jewelry designer, butthe canvas of the body quickly became too small. With clay, she searches for a newlanguage of form around themes such as transience and forgetfulness. Throughvarious treatments of the surface, she references nature, the human body, and itsdeteriorating mind. Inspired by a mountain holiday from her childhood, she createdthe series ‘containers of memory.’

As a graphic designer, Bart Luijten (1967) has always been fascinated by the grainin print, film, and analog photography. The shadows of noise, where barely anythinghappens, represent information to him: Noise equals information. Veils of blackand white ash suggest bodies. The more the grain is enlarged, the more realitydisappears, vibrating like the noise of electronic music or the random pixel patternon a static TV screen. You discover the same negative space and energetic texturein the collages of fictional mountain landscapes and monochrome fever dreams.

Ilse and Bart have been a couple for over 30 years. Each of them has individually builta small collection, which, just like them, beautifully merges together.