Takeover: #140 Maarten Bel
Maarten Bel: Instagram / Website
#140 (30/11 - 06/12 2020) written by Anisa Demirci and Cheyenne Pattiwaël
Let’s dive into the world of Maarten Bel, a multidisciplinary artist who graduated in BA Visual Arts from St Joost in 2011 and MA Fine Art from Piet Zwart Institute in 2014.
Maarten’s artworks arise from necessity. Whenever he is struck by inspiration and loads of ideas, he must do something with it, to tell it to the world by creating it. Inspiration can come from a multitude of things that happen to Maarten or that he observes, things that take him out of the routine of everyday life. He collects them in a big sketchbook and different archives filled with fantasies, pictures and trinkets.
“I seduce people to come into my world by creating a new one. I create a different context in which people can experience my work.”
Being a multidisciplinary artist, his works range from performances, drawings, booklets, installations, education, it all depends on the concept. They are diverse, humorous, recognisable, recalcitrant, challenging and a bit dorky in a good way ;). Maarten is a collector and a generalist. He translates experiences from his immediate environment into different forms.
“I find it interesting to move on a surface in which I question or expose various social and societal issues.”
Through his work, he aspires to communicate and to make people think. To surprise them through fun actions and give people a kind of lightness. Like that it is okay for men to embroider. That it is okay to pose naked with said embroideries on a calendar. Why not? Do whatever you want! This lightheartedness can also be used to make difficult topics accessible and up for discussion.
“It’s important to me that the work communicates, that it is able to appeal to a variety of audiences. What I find very cool and powerful about art, is that imagination enables us to look at the world differently.”
Follow Maarten’s Take Over and you will be presented with the following: a visit to the psychologist, bagpipe class, teaching, his artworks, upcoming exhibitions, everyday life and his sexy embroidery calendars. Let’s be seduced to enter his world!
Maarten’s artworks arise from necessity. Whenever he is struck by inspiration and loads of ideas, he must do something with it, to tell it to the world by creating it. Inspiration can come from a multitude of things that happen to Maarten or that he observes, things that take him out of the routine of everyday life. He collects them in a big sketchbook and different archives filled with fantasies, pictures and trinkets.
“I seduce people to come into my world by creating a new one. I create a different context in which people can experience my work.”
Being a multidisciplinary artist, his works range from performances, drawings, booklets, installations, education, it all depends on the concept. They are diverse, humorous, recognisable, recalcitrant, challenging and a bit dorky in a good way ;). Maarten is a collector and a generalist. He translates experiences from his immediate environment into different forms.
“I find it interesting to move on a surface in which I question or expose various social and societal issues.”
Through his work, he aspires to communicate and to make people think. To surprise them through fun actions and give people a kind of lightness. Like that it is okay for men to embroider. That it is okay to pose naked with said embroideries on a calendar. Why not? Do whatever you want! This lightheartedness can also be used to make difficult topics accessible and up for discussion.
“It’s important to me that the work communicates, that it is able to appeal to a variety of audiences. What I find very cool and powerful about art, is that imagination enables us to look at the world differently.”
Follow Maarten’s Take Over and you will be presented with the following: a visit to the psychologist, bagpipe class, teaching, his artworks, upcoming exhibitions, everyday life and his sexy embroidery calendars. Let’s be seduced to enter his world!