Artist Talk: Maarten Vanden Eynde & Oulimata Gueye (FR)
Join us for a conversation between art critic Oulimata Gueye and artist Maarten Vanden Eynde as they discuss Vanden Eynde's work in Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order.
The conversation will delve into his distinctive paintings featuring periodic elements, his collaboration with artist Edmond Musasa Leu N'seya, and his involvement in the project On-Trade-Off (OTO) — a critical exploration of lithium mining, the new forms of extractivism it entails, and the pitfalls of green energy's promises.
Gueye and Vanden Eynde have previously co-curated several notable projects, such as the Ars Memoriae exhibition in New York and the Art Explora residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris.
Maarten Vanden Eynde has been engaged in long-term research projects that focus on numerous subjects of social and political relevance, such as post-industrialism, capitalism and ecology. His work is situated on the border between the past and the future, sometimes looking forward to the future of yesterday, sometimes look- ing back to the history of tomorrow. Vanden Eynde graduated in 2000 from the free media department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2006, he participated in the experimental Mountain School of Arts in Los Angeles, later finishing a postgraduate course in 2009 at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Ghent. He won the Public Prize for the first Belgian Art Prize (2017). In 2024, he received a PhD from the University of Bergen for his research project Ars Memoriae, The Art to Remember.
Oulimata Gueye is a Senegalese-French art critic and curator. Her curatorial approach is based on research at the intersection of digital science and technology, contemporary art, literature, and popular culture. She has participated in numerous international projects on electronic cultures, performance, experimental sound practices, and media arts. Her recent work combines fiction, science, technology, and knowledge in relation to the position of Africa and its diasporas, from a critical analytical perspective and alternative standpoint. She co-edited the book Digital Imaginaries, African positions beyond binaries (ZKM-Kerber 2021). She curated the exhibition UFA, Université des Futurs Africains at Lieu Unique (2021) and Ars Memoriae at 601Artspace New York with Maarten Vanden Eynde in 2022, and was a visiting researcher at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in 2023. She currently teaches and directs the Art post-graduate program at the École nationale des Beaux Arts de Lyon (Ensba Lyon). She is a member of the scientific committee of the Édouard Glissant Art Fund and of the Women in AI and new media art program at AWARE.