Edith Dekyndt

Although the conceptual guidance is provided by experimental protocols, which she follows meticulously, Dekyndt's artistic approach results in a disturbing observation of the physical phenomena taking place before our very eyes, or even in certain cases, within our eyes. Just as science fiction produces the supernatural from the rational, fantasy and strangeness are no longer the result of superstitious attitudes, as in the age of fantastic and fabulous stories, but the lucid vision of a world whose reality revealed by science now reaches beyond fiction. Universal forces such as gravity and magnetism and such vital intensities as heat and light are revealed as cosmic existences in their extraordinary dimensions, as scientific research pushed to the extreme suddenly becomes a metaphysical journey. For measuring the universe is ultimately tantamount to measuring oneself, since our limits are primarily those of our perception and our awareness. In spite of inevitable references to the technological age and frequent recourse to recording devices, Dekyndt's deliberately low-tech oeuvre thus remains humanist, in the sense that it is less about the utopian invention of another world than a practical inventory of the wonders of our earthly world. Confirming the fact that artistic materials are not ideas but sensations, Edith Dekyndt manages to conceive our earthly environment by turning away from the supra-sensitive heights of philosophy or ideology, in favour of the even infra-sensitive or subterranean world of things which are hidden but paradoxically remain visible.

Although the conceptual guidance is provided by experimental protocols, which she follows meticulously, Edith Dekyndt's artistic approach results in a disturbing observation of the physical phenomena taking place before our very eyes, or even in certain cases, within our eyes. Just as science fiction produces the supernatural from the rational, fantasy and strangeness are no longer the result of superstitious attitudes, as in the age of fantastic and fabulous stories, but the lucid vision of a world whose reality revealed by science now reaches beyond fiction. Universal forces such as gravity and magnetism and such vital intensities as heat and light are revealed as cosmic existences in their extraordinary dimensions, as scientific research pushed to the extreme suddenly becomes a metaphysical journey. For measuring the universe is ultimately tantamount to measuring oneself, since our limits are primarily those of our perception and our awareness. In spite of inevitable references to the technological age and frequent recourse to recording devices (photography, video and sound), Edith Dekyndt's deliberately low-tech oeuvre thus remains humanist, in the sense that it is less about the utopian invention of another world than a practical inventory of the wonders of our earthly world. Confirming the fact that artistic materials are not ideas but sensations, Edith Dekyndt manages to conceive our earthly environment by turning away from the supra-sensitive heights of philosophy or ideology, in favour of the even infra-sensitive or subterranean world of things which are hidden but paradoxically remain visible. For in spite of our technological arsenal, we still sometimes look without seeing; or else because of it, we resemble the fool in the Chinese proverb who looks at the finger which is pointing to the moon.