As promised, here is the TimeCapsule video for the virtual opening vernissage of my first solo exhibition.

Subtitles are available in NL/UK

With contributions by my cousin Joost Vander Auwera (Senior Curator – Royal Museums of Fine Art of Belgium, Brussels), Chris Vanbeveren (my Art Painting coach – Academy for Visual Arts, Ghent, Belgium), Frank Poncelet (synthesizer soundscape, co-student Digital Visual Arts, Ghent, Belgium), and John Oliver from Interior Truth. With lots of gratitude.

Background music credits: by Meydän – Tracks: Pure Water, Under Water, Please Wake Up https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Me…

All other artwork, video, soundscape, poems, video editing by Petervan. Produced with standard tools like iMovie and YouTube Studio. 

I am inviting video artists to do something more interesting with the raw material of this TimeCapsule. Contact me privately if interested.

Joost and Chris were so kind to write and record introductory words for the opening keynotes. Below some extracts and links to the full versions. The TimeCapsule video includes slightly edited versions of the full versions in NL/UK.

Opening Keynote Joost

“Petervan has a special sensitivity in his art for the image that captures. And he knows how to maintain this in a multitude of styles and media. This is evident from this solo exhibition. He greatly appreciates what his teachers teach him and that decorates him.”

“He constantly experiments, but his images keep capturing attention, in a wide variety of form languages”

Opening Keynote Chris

“Peter likes to work with different materials and techniques and since a few months he also expresses himself with digital imaging. In that context, we can definitely speak of “mixed media”. There are even initiatives and ideas to give this a three-dimensional character. We can only encourage it. In his exhibition we see that diversity. There are “grid structures”, paintings with collage-like aspects, idiosyncratic representations of man, interiors, models like I already mentioned, geometric and organic.”

“I think we can safely say that Peter is a thinker in images.”

And Frank Poncelet – in his daily life Operations Architect at the Xplore Group, but here as co-student of the Digital Visual Arts Media Lab of the Academy in Ghent – made a soundscape for the TimeCapsule with his synthesizers. Check out his YouTube Channel Frame Per Second Animation). I selected his video “Pellicule”. I am sure the Corporate Rebels out there will find inspiration in this compilation.

Also included in this TimeCapsule is a recording made by John Oliver from  Interior Truth: what he does is interesting – silent witnessing videos of artists. Check him out.

Short version here, and the long version here

My testimonial about this experience:

The silence witnessing approach is refreshing. John creates a virtual space for permission. Permission to be silent, to open-up, to reflect, to adjust, to pause, to dream, and to imagine. He skilfully listens and watches in silence, trying to discern the different stories interwoven in the recording, picking one, and editing it in a high-quality video testimony that respects the integrity of the moment.

Personally, I chose to share stories that were informed from recent reflections, rather than stepping over the lines of my own vulnerability. I know it, and I have no regrets of not exposing my worst shadows to a broader audience. I think it is good for any artist/creative to have a witnessing moment like this, to discover and articulate better what is driving the artistic process. Bravo!

The showroom of the exhibition is open until 31 August 2020. You can get in via this link.

I got some very encouraging feedback after the launch on 1 July 2020, for which I am very grateful. So, more artwork is coming. I just subscribed for another two years at the Academy for Visual Arts in Ghent: a series of 2 specialization years on painting with the aim to professionalise my practice. And cherry on the cake, two artworks already sold: “Blue Boat” and “Five Guys on the Beach”. Feels like the start of a new career.

Enjoy!