MUSEION Concept

In this new kind of MUSEION, a place where the nine Muses give inspiration free rein, Nick Ervinck enters into a dialogue with traditional forms of art and architecture. Daughters of Mnemosyne, these Muses preserved ancient wisdom and knowledge, animating these precious gifts again and again, creating new forms for them, designing new world views. As in ancient times, this MUSEION displays a unique combination of art and science. Just as the 'Temple of the Muses' in Alexandria with its famous Library sought to understand the entire world at that time, his virtual MUSEION brings together a collection of artworks that ask intriguing questions to our recent history.

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He is a person whose life revolves around the creative and innovative use of computers and games. He has used his knowledge of the digital world to breathe new life into sculpture and to connect it with architecture in a different way. Today his sculptures are physically elaborated, but always arise from a digital way of thinking. So with this research project he is going back to his digital world to rethink the relationship between sculpture, nature and history in virtual spaces.

He is deeply aware that space is an experience that relies on great cultural and historical differences. In the processing of what passes as "reality", he knows that "reality" is always a product of imagination and experience, of ways of looking and investigating. His virtual unlocking of "reality" is therefore a very personal, but also extremely creative way of dealing with the things around him.

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Because he experiences this world as disenchanted and then again often as extremely enchanting, the museum has always fascinated him and intrigued him immensely as a central place of cultural attraction and wonder. A museum therefore always appears to him as a magical place that carries with it a whole epistemological legacy and has always managed to legitimize culture in changing contexts.

Since he has felt particularly fascinated by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth in recent years, he also wants to involve them strongly in his artistic dialogue. In collaboration with the Henry Moore Foundation, he has set up an intense collaboration that has led to his monograph on both their works
(NHIECNKREYRMVOIONRCEK Hannibal Publishers, 2019). In addition to this artistic godfather of him, he also wants to include many images of other artist and influences in MUSEION.

Just as he has already built his NHIECNKREYRMVOIONRCEK cabinet GNI-RI Oct2019 in Waregem around a collection of 300 art books and monographs relating to Henry Moore and his time and as He varied them with objects that inspired both him and Nick for a lifetime, he sees  MUSEION as a clergyman space in which people can undergo an inspiring feeling of intoxication by stepping into the imagination that has kept him artistically afloat all the past years.

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He has always liked to play cross-over between disciplines of visual arts, new media, architecture, design, dance, furniture, books, African art, minerals, geology, archeology, toys and that is why he also feels related to the ideals of Bauhaus where there was no distinction between the disciplines. Also in MUSEION everything fertilizes each other and his manual drawings can connect all the arts rhizomatically. An audiovisual support per object can allow the exploration of this virtual space to take place interactively as if it were a game or game module.

By entering into a personal and energetic connection as an artist, he wants to explore a new way of looking, so that sculpture and architecture will be seen in a changing light and will hopefully encourage many people to take the same creative journey. What was once at the center of attention as a life-en-lightening moment and now stored somewhere in cellars or archives is far from being served and if the current pandemic has taught us anything, it certainly has to do with our need to understand, to interact with each other, to listen and understand life.

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So learn to look "Through the looking glass" and again imagine yourself as "Alice in Wonderland", being overcome by other dimensions of looking and feeling, straight through the holes in things, as Moore, Hepworth and he loves to do! So for him it is about touching people, renewing our view and being carried away by all the cross connections that make human life a unique experience.

About NICK ERVINCK

NICK ERVINCK (1981-) graduated in 2003 from the KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent) with a master's degree in Mixed Media. He then trained in computer modeling, sculpting and working with materials such as polyester, plaster and wood. After teaching at art academies in Tielt, Menen and Kortrijk (2004-2012), he returned to the KASK to spend three years here as a guest professor. His work consists of large installations, handmade and 3D printed sculptures, ceramics, prints, drawings, light boxes and animation films. As diverse as this art production may be, above all he remains fascinated by the "negative space" as he discovered it in classical sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The finding that a "hole" in matter is such a young idea will likely haunt him for the rest of his life. As a child of his time, he plays an alternating game between the physical and virtual world, using both the classic and the new craftsmanship (computers, 3D printing and milling). From here he explores in his own unique way classic themes such as man (with a focus on his anatomy and the development of cyborgs), plants (especially their genetic manipulation), masks and animals, always starting from an (art) historical background that he intersects with contemporary pop and sci-fi culture. He has received several awards: Prix Godecharle (2005), The Fortis Young Ones Award (2006), the Provincial Prize for Fine Arts West Flanders (2006) and the Rodenbach Fund Award (2008). In 2013 Ervinck also won the prestigious Merit CODA Award for his art integration IMA-GROD.