Bob Verschueren: The journey of a plant and sound sculptor

The work of Bob Verschueren, from Brussels, is protean yet deeply coherent. His artistic career develops in ramifications, with each new work heralding the next and echoing previous creations. In 1978, he left his painter's studio to create Wind Paintings, outdoor works made from natural pigments scattered in the wind across the landscape. It was from this decisive turning point that his interest in nature, and in plants in particular, was born. Since then, Bob Verschueren has created over 280 installations in Europe and around the world. He uses the elements of nature as a means of expression. He transforms trees, branches and leaves into spectacular sculptures, evoking both the splendour and the decay of all living things. Each piece reflects on man, his life and death, and his relationship with his natural environment. "Each is a metaphor, not a symbol. "I don't want to encapsulate my installations in obligatory, univocal readings. I prefer to keep them open to the reading of each individual, with his or her own sensibility and background. I want them to have an event-driven character. When an installation resonates with the place in which it is installed, it becomes self-evident, establishing a tension between the timelessness of the proposition and its ephemeral nature," explains the artist. He has also explored other fields, such as sound (Catalogue de plantes, begun in 1995), phytogravures (begun in 1999), photography and rubbings. For some of his sound installations, Bob Verschueren inserts poetic texts by Dominique Sintobin, with whom he has collaborated since 2005. For this year's Rise Festival, Bob Verschueren will be offering us the chance to see and hear all the aspects of his art, with plants taking pride of place in Flagey for the duration of the Festival.

Flagey, Festival Musiq3