Ans Mertens

Belgium °1989
research interests: art, Film-making, audiovisual installation, Curatorial Studies
affiliation: LUCA School of Arts
en

The work of Ans Mertens (°1989, living/working in between Antwerp and Brussels) plays on the tension between objective recordings and subjective image making. She plays with proximity and remoteness, the spatial dynamics that attract our attention and draw the eye to understand visibility as a fleeting condition of the things surrounding us. The work of Ans Mertens also shows that time, perhaps more than space, is the ultimate subject of all film: time captured, time chased. Arranged, erased, wasted. Leisurely spent, unspectacularly passed. 
 
Ans Mertens (°1989) is a visual artist researching the intersection of time, film and the exhibition space. She is working on her artistic Phd project "The (dis)appearance of Time"  at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels. She has shown her work at ao. Museum M, M HKA, Sonic Acts, ExtraCity & Visite Film Festival. 

research

research expositions (collaborated)

  • The Second Last Meeting (last edited: 2022) author(s): Lodewijk Heylen, Ans Mertens This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
    In July 2019, we organized a meeting at the Verbeke Art Foundation. It was a gathering of people—artists, designers, architects, researchers—where we discussed, imagined and prefigured a society of total automation. The Last Meeting became a meta-meeting—a meeting in which we considered the possibility of never again holding another meeting. To deepen and refine this experience, we propose a second last meeting. In September 2023 a gathering will take place in the monastery of the Trappistines of Brecht, a monastic order of the most strict observance. This time-old religious community will be our guide in discussions and reflections on the foundations of the social organization of daily life and its impact on artistic practices and research. Opposing the portrayal of the artist as the driving agent of radical change, we will experience the withdrawal from the narrative of progress and novelty. We want to challenge the archetype of the bleeding edge by retreating to a community which has done so for 1500 years. By reflecting on its fundamentals of sustainability, preservation and maintenance, we question change altogether, whether it is incremental or revolutionary. The observation of the absence of societal initiative, and the nuns’ refusal to participate in the change-driven ideologies of the general public, will be the protocol of our gathering. Combining the concepts of a summer school, an artist retreat, a residency and a performance, the Second Last Meeting is an opportunity for artists to synchronize thoughts on the importance of their role within a whole. For SAR 2023, we want to present our insights gathered during the first meeting, and share our plans for the next. We will, again, ask ourselves the question: what does it mean to meet?
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