Artist
Sybren Vanoverberghe
Sybren Vanoverberghe (b. 1996) is an artist based in Ghent, Belgium. The work of Vanoverberghe shows the landscape in a constant state of change. The correlation between place and time is shown in images where history, nature and heritage collide into each other.
The photographs of Vanoverberghe have been made at places with historical importance as well as at ordinary sites. In his work questions are raised regarding the importance of icons. His work is showing presets of existing structures confronted with what can be seen as artefacts of the future. There’s no chronological order in the work of Vanoverberghe, certain images represent a past that has never existed. In his books, Vanoverberghe often works around the cyclical aspect of certain sites that are no longer geographically situated. The work provides hypothetical questions that go back and forth in time in an equal measure. When can an image be seen as a document of the past and when can it be seen as a prophecy for the future? There is a constant tension between accepting images that are seen as documents of the past and denying images that are seen as prophecies for the future.
Vanoverberghe's work has been published in books such as ‘2099’ (2018) and ‘Conference of the Birds’ (2019) by APE (Art Paper Editions). He has received the ‘Prix Horlait Dapsens’ and is part of the ‘.tiff’ selection by FOMU Antwerp. He had exhibitions at Stieglitz19 (Antwerp, Belgium), the Unseen Photo Fair (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the Cultural Centre of Yangzhou (China) and collaborated with fashion brand Ann Demeulemeester. His work has been published on American Suburb X, Photoworks UK, De Standaard, Paper Journal, De Volkskrant, GUP Magazine and the PHmuseum. He co-founded artist run spaces Pinguin (Brussels, Belgium) and NO/Gallery (Ghent, Belgium). In September, Vanoverberghe will have a duo exhibition together with Thomas Vandenberghe at the Flemish cultural house De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam. In October his solo exhibition opens at Deweer Gallery accompanied by the book launch of ‘1099’ published by Art Paper Editions.
Conference of the Birds
’’Vanoverberghe’s Conference of the Birds is a body of work in which the artist has forensically interpreted a site in Iran by looking for observable characteristics which could potentially declare, in photographic terms, clues to the decimation of its being. The site, previously burnt to the ground has been left to a ruinous existence. This village that Vanoverberghe has documented challenges our need for answers with a solution to look at it through metaphor, sculptural analysis and non-agreeable positions of historical interpretation. This is in part what Eyal Weitzman refers to as the threshold of detectability-unseen marks, scars and trauma become examined in their minutiae to create a relative document and understanding of place. In Vanoverberghe’s case, he is not looking for finite meaning through the act of observing this site, but rather wishes to illustrate a condition of place and its multiple possibilities for historical representations. Without acknowledging a more fluid set of values and meanings, Vanoverberghe would be creating documents in spite of themselves by offering few historical alternatives. In Vanoverberghe’s work, we have the crux of photographic representation in its relative and observable discourse, which is the only discourse suitable for images in which one bears witness, but is which also encourages elasticity to their historical interpretation. ’’
Outtake of Brad Feuerhelm on 'Conference of the Birds' for the publication .tiff (by FOMU Antwerp)
2099
2099 shows images of remembrance linked to my perception on the constant evolution of history and its repetitive character. Deconstructed places and manipulated icons are working on an associative basis to create a new overview of the present. I am experimenting with what is staged and what is not and how a photographer can interfere in the landscape by working on an underlying lyricism in the images. The work can both be seen as a prophecy for the future as well as a desire to the past. Some photographs are taken by chance and close to home, other were chosen to photograph on fixed historical locations and metropoles.