As an artist / sculptor, Nicolas Baeyens is interested in the possibilities to critically examine the static character of sculpture. He wants to break with the fact that after realization, a sculpture is usually an immutable object. At the same time he is looking for the identity of a work of art. In the past Baeyens did this by transforming his work by means of a scrap machine.
These scrappings raised a number of questions: Can an artwork be completely stripped of its old identity? Is the memory of an image as valuable as the actual physical work and to what extent is a 'not-anymore' work of art flexible and subject to interpretation?
This research will investigate the materialistic dimension of art. Baeyens starts from steel-made images and tries to question the wearer's impact without rejecting it. To what extent can an image continue to change and even become fully absorbed in the cerebral? He wants to map this information by, for example, collaborating with other visual artists. The destroyed images lose their 'old' character and are reduced to the carrier or part of a new work or installation.
With this research Baeyens wants to highlight the ephemeral character of art. Performing arts are by definition ephemeral and therefore it is interesting to study how theater artists, performance artists and theater scientists deal with this.
