When a pandemic shuts down her laboratories and temples, modern art finds new ways to spill over and engage with the world. In the Battery, the beating heart of LABIOMISTA, artist Koen Vanmechelen launches The Battery Channel. With this audiovisual channel, Vanmechelen continues his artistic quest for meaning, identity, diversity and community in sounds, syllables and imaging.
Initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist invites you inside his overactive but quarantined brain and takes you with him on his journey of discovery. Over a period of 20 weeks, you follow how his mind is fecundated by the various people he involves in his ecosystem and how his newly discovered knowledge gets translated into unusual associations and artistic expression.
Learn more about llama Winter - Winter is the star of research in the fight against the coronavirus, led by Xavier Saelens (VIB/ Universiteit Gent) and Jason McLellan (University of Texas) - and proud resident of LABIOMISTA.
In this third episode of The Battery Channel, UNCOMFORTABLE, Koen talks to Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts, international curator and art advisor. Together they explore the meaning of this moment in time. A conversation on art and COVID-19, on Joseph Beuys, on balance and nature. On the link between George Floyd and the pandemic, On racism and quarantine, On human sacrifice and on our better angels.
Sunday, 9 August, moth catchers counted around 6000 moths at various locations in Genk, belonging to over 300 different species. The count was part of a remarkable art project by artist Koen Vanmechelen, in collaboration with Bart Van Camp and the city of Genk entitled Between Jungle and Civilization. “There is more nature around us than we are willing to see,” the artist says.
One year ago, on the 6th of July 2019, LABIOMISTA opened its gates to the public. We're celebrating one year of art, nature and science, one year of wonder and biocultural diversity, of community building local and globally. Ever evolving, ever transforming... A meeting place for all the species of this world... The Battery Channel reports;