Alexis Destoop
º1971, Belgium
About
Through multilayered constructions in photography, installation and film, Alexis Destoop’s work explores the workings of the image and narrative, the experience of time, and the processes of identification and memory. His practice originates from photography but has been influenced by his experience in the performing arts as well as his studies in art history and philosophy.
Referencing classical representations of the human figure, his earlier works focus on duration and performativity while drawing on substractive procedures and minimalist strategies.
In recent years his situated practice has focused on particular transitional environments where ecological pitfalls, economical aspirations, geopolitical tensions and colonial histories coalesce.
Rather than treating landscape as a passive element or as a sublime natural object, he approaches as a thoroughly human construct – with stratified meanings and histories. Through an intimate relation to “place”, he aims to reveal a complex sense of agency that constitutes it. This explains the decision to attend to contentious zones where global and local processes collide and intertwine, and where it becomes possible to rethink notions of centre and periphery, self and other.
Blending fact and fiction, history and speculation, Destoop presents a fragmented, subjective cartography of the transitory states that constitute our present era.
Education
2000-2002 Post-graduate / Master in Fine Arts at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing, France
1993-1997 Master in Philosophy, University of Ghent, Belgium - Thesis on Gilles Deleuze’s concept of immanence, Dept. of Epistemology
1991-1993 Undergraduate in Art History, University of Ghent, Belgium
Exhibitions / Screenings / Presentations
Solo / Screenings (selection)
2024 The Pits, On Extractivism - program on the context of the exhibition “Power” , C.I.V.A., Brussels (BE)
2023 Northern Drift, Norrboten Teknologiska Megasystem Festival , Institutet Vitsaiemi (SE)
2022 Northern Drift, Arctic Film Festival, Winner Best Feature Documentary, Longyearbyen (NO)
2021 Northern Drift, “Flight”, Mostra Internationale del Cinema, Genova (IT)
2021 Northern Drift, “Flight”, European Film Festival
2020 Between the Colours that are Suspended, solo exhibition, Chauffeur Gallery, Sydney (AU)
2020 Northern Drift, “Anthropocene Tribute” @ Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival (GR)
2020 Northern Drift, World Premiere, “Bright Future” @ International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL)
2019 Northern Drift, avant-premiere, Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE)
2018 Plouton, solo exhibition, Chauffeur, Sydney (AU)
2017 Four Directions of Heaven, solo exhibition curated by Ive Stevenheydens, Argos Center for the Arts , Brussels (BE)
2015 Aesthetics after Finitude conference & group exhibition, curated by Pru Gibson, UNSW A&D, Sydney (AU)
2013 Heroine, premiere screening, Les Brigittines Art Centre, Brussels (BE)
2012 Kairos, premiere screening, Festival de l’Imaginaire, film screening, Flagey, Brussels (BE)
2010 The Desynchronized Zone, solo exhibition, NEXT Festival, Kortrijk (BE),
2009 Almost Cinema, music & film performance, in collaboration with Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley, Ghent International Film Festival (BE)
2008 Evidence, solo exhibition, Benedengalerij cK, Kortrijk (BE)
2007 Pandora, premiere screenings, BudaFest, Kortrijk (BE)
2005 I’m Happy Men, premiere screening, Theaterfestival, Vooruit, Ghent (BE)
2004 D@K, solo show, Buda Fabriek, Kortrijk (BE)
2004 Ecce, Something Raw, performing arts exhibition & festival, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
2003 Ecce, Spectra, performing arts exhibition & festival, Galerie Oost, CC Maasmechelen (BE)
2002, Protocol, solo show, Iselp, Brussels (BE)
Group (selection)
2023 Art in the age of the Anthropocene, group show curated by Linda Kaljundi, Ulrike Plath, Eha Komissarov, Bart Pushaw & Tiiu Saadoja, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (EE)
2023 Charging Myths, group show of the research collective On-Trade-Off, curated by the artists, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (NL)
2023 Landschap in Verandering, Jakob Smits Museum - Tabloo, Dessel (BE)
2022 Extractions, group show, A Two Dogs Company, Brussels (BE)
2022 Charging Myths, group show of the research collective On-Trade-Off, curated by Ils Huygens, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt (BE)
2020 Being Safe is Scary, Survival Kit Festival, curated by Katia Krupenikova, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (LV)
2020 The Work of Time, group show curated by Ils Huyghens, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt (BE)
2020 The Russian Connection, group show and arts festival, Barentsspektakel, Pikene pa Broen, Kirkenes (NO)
2019, Topos of Time, group exhibition, curated bu Yulia Aksenova, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (RU)
2019 On-Trade-Off : Routes & Roads, lecture performance with Mi You, curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez Contour Biennale 9, Mechelen (BE)
2019 Neuhaus, group exhibition, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam (NL)
2019 Hereafter, group show, Sonic Acts, at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
2019 Field Meeting 6 / Thinking Collections, lecture-performance, ACAW, curated by Leeza Ahmady, at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (UAE)
2018 Everything was forever until it was no more, 1st Riga Biennale, group show curated by Katerina Gregos (LV)
2018 Contour 556, Public Art Biennial, group show, Canberra (AU)
2017 Spring 1883, art fair, The General Store , Sydney (AU)
2015 No strings attached. Exploring the relation between ethnography and contemporary arts, symposium and presentation, organized by Argos & SIC, Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE)
2015 Q&A, video installation in collaboration with Various Artists, Galeria Continua, San Gimigniano (IT)
2015 Thinking Currents, group exhibition curated by Leeza Ahmady, Seattle Art Fair, Seattle (US)
2015 Field Meeting , lecture performance, curated by Leeza Ahmady, Asian Contemporary Art Week, Arsenale Officer’s Club, Venice (IT)
2015 Art-ivism, group exhibition curated by Luk Lambrecht, Museumcultuur, CC Strombeek/SMAK, Brussels (BE)
2014 Field Meeting, conference and presentations curated by Leeza Ahmady , Asian Contemporary Art Week, Asia Society Museum, New York (US)
2013 Borderless, group exhibition curated by Frank Maes, Galerie Emergent, Veurne (BE)
2012 All our Relations, 18th Biennale of Sydney, group exhibition curated by Catherine De Zegher, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney (AU)
2012 Cantus Firmus, group exhibition curated by Tim Voss and Christophe Meierhans, W139, Amsterdam (NL)
2010 Nightshifters, group exhibition curated by Bec Dean, PSpace, Carriageworks, Sydney (AU)
2010 Pittoresk, group exhibition, Museum MARTa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Herford (DE)
2009 Beyond the Picturesque, group exhibition curated by Frank Maes and Steven Jacobs, SMAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent (BE)
2008 Dans la Nuit, des Images, group exhibition curated by Alain Fleischer, Grand Palais, Paris (FR)
2007 Territoires de l’image, group exhibition curated by Madeleine Van Doren, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (FR)
2006 Utopia, Beeldenstorm, Kortrijk (BE)
2002 Panorama 2, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (FR)
Residencies / Research (recent and ongoing)
2022, PhD candidacy, Monash University, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Melbourne (AU)
2022, Iaspis International Studio Residency, Stockholm (SW)
2020, Iaspis Online Studio Residency, Stockholm (SW)
2019 - ongoing On-Trade-Off, in partnership with Enough Room for Space, Brussels (BE) & Picha, Lubumbashi (DRC)
2017 - ongoing Nuclear Culture, group research, workshops & presentations, initiated by Studio Time / Z33 (BE) and Ele Carpenter (Goldsmiths, UK), in partnership with Niras-Ondrav & SCK-CEN, various locations (BE)
2011- 2019 Northern Drift, 7 residencies, Pikene pa Broen, Kirkenes (NO) between 2016-2018
2016 Conspiracies against the Sun, residency with Prof. Dr. Peter Eckersall, Io Myers Studio, UNSW, Sydney (AU)
2015 - ongoing Mirdinan, field research with the Goolarabooloo community initiated by & in collaboration with Prof Dr. Stephen Muecke (Experimental Humanities, UNSW), Sydney (AU)
2011 - Galleri Svalbard artist research residency, Lonbgyearbyen (NO)
2009 - Broken Hill Art Exchange (NSW, AU) - production residency for Kairos
2008 - Artspace Sydney, International Residency program (NSW, AU)
Filmography (completed)
2020 Northern Drift, documentary fiction / experimental - 56 min
2013 Heroine, dance film - 20 min
2012 8 Seasons, 4 animated films commissioned by Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille (FR) & Flagey (BE)
2012 Kairos, experimental fiction - 35 min
2007 Pandora, experimental fiction - 13 min
2005 I’m Happy Men, experimental fiction - 21 min
Selected Texts / Publications
2022 Vertical Atlas, edited by Leonardo Dellanoce, Amal Khalaf, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Nanjala Nyabola, Renee Roukens, Arthur Steiner & Mi You, ArtEZ Press
2017 Four Directions of Heaven, essay, Dominiek Hoens, De Witte Raaf #186 (BE/NL)
2014 Shade Themes from Kairos, soundtrack and themes, Drag City Records (US)
2012 All our Relations, exhibition catalogue, ed. Catherine De Zegher & Gerald MacMaster, 18th Biennale of Sydney
2011 Under the influence, interview by Ian Mundell, Flanders Image magazine, # 21
2010 Nightshifters, exhibition catalogue, Ross Gibson & Bec Dean (ed.) PSpace, Sydney
2009 Beyond the Picturesque, exhibition catalogue, SMAK, Frank Maes & Steven Jacobs (Ed.)
2007 Territoires de l’image, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Madeleine Van Dooren (ed.)
2007 L’’invitation au voyage, image & text intervention on photography, Etcetera #106
2005 Usurious Logics, essay, Dominiek Hoens in ‘What are you doing ? », texts on video-art, Jan Van Eyck Academie, ed. Robbrecht Vanderbeken
2004 Exposer l’image en mouvement, essais, Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Philippe Franck, Eric Van Essche(ed) La Lettre Volée, Bruxelles
2003 Het kei zal zich wel teren, essay, Elke Van Campenhout in Etcetera #87
2002 Panorama 3, exhibition catalogues, Christophe Khim (Ed.), Le Fresnoy
2001 Panorama 2, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy