GHENT.- The Friends of S.M.A.K. Prize | Coming People 2018, a joint project by S.M.A.K. and the Friends of S.M.A.K., is a biennial contest for young artists who have just graduated from a Belgian art college. These two partners’ intention with this initiative is to offer opportunities to up-and-coming talent that does not always easily find its way into the professional art world.

Nine finalists were selected for the 2018 contest: Henry Andersen, Elias Cafmeyer, AnaÏs Chabeur, Maud Gourdon, Jonathan Paepens, Lien Van Ranst, Lieselotte Vloeberghs, Justyna Wierzchowiecka and Guy Woueté.

On the basis of the finalists’ presentations, the jury, whose members are Sonia Dermience (director of Komplot in Brussels), Antony Hudek (director of curatorial studies at KASK in Ghent), Frank-Thorsten Moll (director of IKOB in Eupen), Niels Van Tomme (director of De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam), Philippe Leeman (chairman of the Friends of S.M.A.K.) and the artistic team at S.M.A.K., have decided to award the Friends of S.M.A.K. Prize | Coming People 2018 to Lieselotte Vloeberghs (1994, Lier, BE). She obtained a Master in Fine Art at the Luca School of Arts in Ghent in 2017. Her artistic practice focuses on the interaction between words and images and in addition to drawings and books also includes spatial installations and performances.

The jury was impressed by the quality of the 9 presentations and congratulates all the artists for their exceptional contributions to the exhibition.

Lieselotte Vloeberghs’ artistic practice arises out of an interaction between words and images. She draws concepts from books that fascinate her. Each drawing represents an idea. The more we try to interpret her drawings, the more we become lost in her visual logic and the complex truth of her imaginary world. The drawings do not reveal their secrets, just as the world again and again leaves us still searching.

Vloeberghs’ installation IE (2017-2018) consists of a room several metres high with walls made of delicate drawing paper. All the opinions and points of view drawn on it click together like a puzzle. The result is not a clear image but a layered reality of ideas, in an attempt to uncover a greater truth. In this work, the artist herself adopts the point of view of the air, as something transparent and all-embracing. The breathing space between each of her ideas is physically represented by blank sheets. In addition, Vloeberghs is also presenting a publication entitled IE , in which she transports us into the minds of four characters who are looking for answers to all their questions. We are invited to sit down on a chair and to project questions onto an endless sheet of white paper without ever finding an answer to them.

Lieselotte Vloeberghs (1994, Lier, BE) obtained a Master in Fine Arts at the Luca School of Arts in Ghent in 2017 and also won the prize awarded by the jury. She has taken part in several group exhibitions at the Drawing Centre in Diepenheim, the Sint-Lukasgalerie in Brussels, Croxhapox in Ghent, Netwerk in Aalst and elsewhere.