THE ARTIST

Mark Swysen focusses on human behaviour.                                                                                                          His work explores the way in which man handles his life and environment, how he gets on with his fellow humans.

While sole works betray a strong emotional involvement, in the grand total of any of his projects Mark Swysen maintains an almost scientific objectivity, perhaps a reminiscence of his education as a biologist. In the audio-installation, part of the “Causa Vitae”-project for instance, the visitor has the option of the religious point of view as well as the nihilistic approach formulated by Nietzsche.

Cross-medial works

Mark Swysen walks a thin cross-medial line between sculpture, painting, installations and performances. The repertoire of materials used is inexhaustible: occasionally he uses acrylic paint on canvas but immediately adds mixed media. He welds steel into conceptual installations or works a variety of metals with acids in order to accomplish new patines. He burns oak or agresses it with a chainsaw before painting it. Ready mades are recycled into a new context: in “Terra” he litterally frames nature, accompanied by a leaking water faucet in the midst of a wastepile

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Basic human instincts and emotional eloquence

The chosen materials are used on account of  their symbolical worth, the basic human instincts they appeal to and their emotional eloquence. The burnt wood refers to the oxidating, slowly expiring human body. The bitumen stands symbol for degenerating skin. Spectators experience a sense of peace, equilibrum, even security despite a number of works point out our temporaryness and mortality,

Emotional and physical involvement of the spectator

In the totality of a project Mark Swysen arranges these single emotional elements according to a rational and well-considered plan in order to communicate with his public. The experience of the total presentation by the visitor now becomes the work of art. “Looking at” is only a part of this.

The artist directs his individual works as if they were actors in a play. Sometimes he becomes a “performer” himself. In his “Quo Vadis”-project the artist inspects the guests passports: some may enter through the main gate, others have to resort to a back entrance. The spectator becomes emotionally, even physically involved.

Often he uses an audio-room where the visitor listens to a number of statements, formulating different opinions on the subject at hand. Though Mark Swysen has a clear personal opinion, he does not want to force this on his audience. The persuasive presence of his works and the confrontation with different angles oblige the visitor to form an opinion.