About the person
born in 1960 in Ypres, Belgium
lives and works in Brussels and Berlin
Edith Dekyndt completed a Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication at the E.T.H. in Saint-Ghislain from 1978 to 1980. Afterwards, she transferred to the École des Beaux-Arts in Mons and earned her Master's degree under the guidance of the artist Gabriel Belgeonne. The conceptual and installation artist works across media with video, sculpture, installation, drawing, and performance. In her works, she explores physical, chemical, and ephemeral phenomena to make invisible forces of nature and the environment perceptible. In her minimally appearing works, she uses unstable or ephemeral substances such as dust, hair, textiles, water, blood, or yeast cultures, which she subjects to physical transformation processes in experimental, laboratory-like procedures. Here, time and transience play a central role, who become active shapers of her works.
About the artwork
The work Unterground 04 (Lens) comes from a series for which Dekyndt uses simple, used curtains or lengths of fabric, which often have their own ‘life story’. She buries these pieces of fabric in various places, leaves them there for weeks or months, and then digs them up again later.
During this time in the earth, the fabric discolours, decomposes and mineral substances settle on its surface. This creates a naturally formed pattern. Here, the factor of time acts as a creative force, bringing about random change, which is then halted and archived at a certain point in time. Beyond the material level, there is also a metaphorical meaning. A curtain marks the transition between spaces, what is in front of it and what is behind it. Through deliberate decomposition, this separation becomes more transparent, more transparent, and its function as a privacy screen is compromised.