Marie Julia Bollansée’s (b. 1960, Pulderbos, Belgium) oeuvre resembles a stream of sculptures, performances, spatial installations, videos, photos and publications that give expression to the vital forces of life.
The essence of her practice lies in seeking out precise, aesthetic forms for the reality that lies hidden within the unconscious. Sculpture plays a significant role in this, as does the ritual presence of the artist, who conveys information like a medium.
Marie Julia Bollansée’s installations and performances contain a diverse range of elements. She creates combinations that include her body, pigment, utensils, materials with a personal or symbolic meaning, finds from nature, costumes, projected photos and videos and ambient sound. Bollansée regards her numerous travels and residencies as a form of research that helps her develop new ideas and discover fresh materials. She therefore borrows elements from Indian, Icelandic, Japanese and Italian literature, myths and poems, as well as those of her own village. The artist subsequently integrates them, together with the attributes, into new work that also touches upon urgent, contemporary themes.
A striking thing here is the recurrent presence of the blue tarps in the colour that Bollansée defines as ‘Tarpaulin blue’. The artist has been haunted by these tarpaulins ever since a residency in Mumbai, where she noticed them for the first time. As a fundamental piece of kit and as a shelter, she sees them as symbolising both the vulnerability and the self-reliance of human beings.
During the exhibition, Marie Julia Bollansée will also be staging a number of performances in the museum. On Sunday 15 August 2021 she will recreate ‘GEOLOGY’ and on Sunday 19 September she will present a new performance.
Marie Julia Bollansée (b. 1960, Pulderbos, Belgium) lives and works in Malle. She studied sculpture and is active as a performance and visual artist. Over the past ten years, her work has featured in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. She has recently staged performances at venues including AIR 3331 – 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (2019), S.M.A.K., Ghent (2019), Kathmandu Triennale, Kathmandu (2017) and MuHKA, Antwerp (2016).
'Vašulka Saga' is the precipitation in corona times of a previously made trip to Iceland. It takes the form of an e-book that only acquires its full meaning in the space between the museum room, the visitor's screen and the artist's diary.
