In 2018, visual artist Bart Lodewijks and photographer Jan Kempenaers began working on a project around the chapel in Kerselare (Oudenaarde) by the architect Juliaan Lampens (designed in 1966). On Thursday 10 December, they will present a publication about the project during a live stream of the Flanders Architecture Institute.
Lodewijks’ drawings on the chapel in white chalk and his writings about the experience form the artistic crux of the project. He used chalk because it is the same medium in which Lampens drew the design for the chapel, working on a blackboard wall in his studio in Eke. Kempenaers photographed the ephemeral drawings and the surroundings of the chapel during the changing seasons.
The publication unites texts by Lodewijks and images by Kempenaers. The story of drawing upon the chapel is interwoven with Lampens’ own aphorisms. The book begins in April 2017, when the artists visited Lampens and sought his approval to draw on the chapel, which was granted. The architect’s death in November 2019 sent the project in a new direction. Lodewijks and Kempenaers went in search of his sources of inspiration for the chapel’s design. Lampens’ poetic philosophy was crucial in this respect, perhaps even more so than his architecture.
"The roof resembles the blackboard in Eke to which Lampens entrusted the initial sketch for the chapel. But before I climbed up on the roof to draw, something of a completely different order occurred."‐ Bart Lodewijks
Three e-books about the project were published by Roma Publications in 2019 and 2020. The e-books can be consulted here.
On Thursday 10 December, Lodewijks and Kempenaers will participate in an online discussion about the publication. They will be joined by guest speakers who have each received an advance copy of the e-book in order to prepare questions for the artists. The conversation will be moderated by Sofie De Caigny (Director, Flanders Architecture Institute).
Speakers
10.12.2020
20h
free
Teams (Installation of the Teams app is not required. You can participate anonymously in your browser.)
Dutch
Flanders Architecture Institute
This autumn we are focusing on the architectural exchange between Flanders and Japan. Two architectural cultures that are ostensibly far apart are today showing a renewed interest in one another. In a series of exhibitions, lectures and (online) reflections, we seek out surprising similarities and deep-rooted differences that lead to new dynamics.