In 2021 Els Dietvorst won the Belgian Art Price. The exhibition at Otty Park shows recent work made during the first lockdown.

"I continue to discover forgotten techniques, slowed down machines and in a certain way the craft of the HAND during this lockdown. My computer which was the dominant predator in the last 10 years, makes place for typewriters, woodsculptures and lino cuttings. I rediscover the power of everyday rituals and repetition. I have the feeling it links me back to ancestors and ancient times. To a life that was simple and fulfilling. I work with what I find on my doorstep and is sculpted, ironed, coloured by the sea.

My direct surroundings are an infinite inspiration for creation. As it is sometimes wood, the wind, a stone, a smile. Man is fulfilled only when unseparated from his surroundings. Every day I type a little mantra on my typewriter. Every day I draw a series of 5 drawings of the some stone or stick in the same technique .  I rediscovered bister, a beautifull natural ink made from the ground bark of walnuts. Every drawing is different even from the same stone or from the same stick which comforts me as it brings about that all is in movement, that all is in transformation, that all is one." (text Els Dietvorst)

Connection

Els Dietvorst is interested in how we, as people, engage with each other and our environment. With her work she makes visible things that go unnoticed. She has an eye for the unwanted and strange, or for what is at risk of disappearing. She has a consistent practice of working in dialogue with others; she creates places for encounters. COVID-19 has made it impossible for her to collaborate directly; it limits her possibilities. She has applied herself to what her surroundings have to offer, looking for meaning, there, as a way of dealing with the situation.

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