The “Extrem Zen” collection is more than a collection: it is a whole concept. The production of the art works that will be shown from 1 to 30th of September is a composition of several original paintings in separated elements, cut and put back in the presentation of 8 different situations.
The Extrem Zen collection Ibiza is a limited series from 1 to 25 and is part of the complete series of 13 art works, of which 8 of them are presented here in Km5/Ibiza.
The ambition is the interactivity with the environment and places where the art works will be exposed. Every place will give the painting a different view, like travelling gives us another perspective on our lifes and gives us a literally brilliant distance to see things clearer, to relativise. The journey gives us freedom: a new vision, an open-mind. But nothing stays the same, we are travelling all the time: every step, every movement, every encounter, every brush and every change is never-ending and inevitable. The horizon is not the end, but only the beginning of another horizon and this is also eternal (see eternal movement of the ribbons).
During several years I have painted these silhouettes in ribbons (fleurs de peau. Translation: skin flowers/on edge) for personal researches in the 3-dimensional perspective and the interaction with UV-light. Some of the art works were partially a part of the exhibition in Km5 in 2014. These figures are emprisonned in a block, concrete or steel, which represent our environment limited by the materialism.
In these figures, human flowers, who are uniquely open-minded, we find a sensibility of every sense, which goes from almost irritation to pleasing shivering by sight or by hearing beautiful things, a sensitive vibration.
“La fleur de peau” (The skin-flower) is represented by these yoga ribbons (expressing the “Zenitude”). The” Zenitude”, which is bi-polar itself, I can explain as a well-being/in balance. “La fleur de peau” (the skin-flower) is the limit of our physical cover: it is the mirror of our feelings. Extrem Zen illustrates how to keep the peace and not a state of being, because life is moving all the time; the research for being “Zen” is already a journey from the inside
I was searching to give birth to a journey, an “éclosion” (Translation: hatching), to which are referring these coloured ribbons and to stress the opening of your eyes to see the symbolism. The interaction between the movement within the painting and the movement of the paintings to other places is very important for the meaning of Extrem Zen.
I wanted to give a life story to these figures, which is starting here, in Ibiza. Ibiza will be its first vibration, its “éclosion”.