Dries Segers

THE NATURAL CONTRACT

2020

'Our companion, our other', VITRINE, Vogesenplatz, Basel (CH) 28 February - 17 july 2020

Mark trees (grensbomen) point out borders in the landscape. They visualize transitions in ownership of land between countries, communes or personal property. Plural administrations watch over the conservation of these natural landmarks.

However, in changing geopolitical environments, these trees have shifted from being cultural-historical bearers to non-information in the landscape.

photos: VITRINE, Basel / Nici Jost

(detail) Dear god and the red cat, 2020, 54x74x13cm, Silkscreen on 300gsm Canson Heritage, lasercutted frame in afzeliawood t

Dear god and the red cat, 2020, 54x74x13cm, Silkscreen on 300gsm Canson Heritage, lasercutted frame in afzeliawood

The death, the wolf and the bird, 2020, 54x74x13cm, Silkscreen on 300gsm Canson Heritage, lasercutted frame in afzeliawood

The fossil gas and the parrots, 2020, 54x74x13cm, Silkscreen on 300gsm Canson Heritage, lasercutted frame in afzeliawood

The H; Hand sculpture, 2020, 12,7x17,7cm, Blue photochromic silkscreenprint on 250gsm Litho Demi Mat

The Stone; Hand sculpture, 2020, 12,7x17,7cm, Blue photochromic silkscreenprint on 250gsm Litho Demi Mat

Lichen; Hand sculpture, 2020, 12,7x17,7cm, Blue photochromic silkscreenprint on 250gsm Litho Demi Mat

The Codes; Hand sculpture, 2020, 12,7x17,7cm, Blue photochromic silkscreenprint on 250gsm Litho Demi Mat

The Branch; Hand sculpture, 2020, 12,7x17,7cm, Blue photochromic silkscreenprint on 250gsm Litho Demi Mat

THESE WORKS ONLY APPEAR IF THERE IS ENOUGH UV-LIGHT
TIME AND SPACE ARE ON THEIR SIDE

FUNGI

2019

Installation with 2 electric heatingsystems, POPPOSITIONS critical artfair, Tour à Plomb, Brussels, april 2019

In the autumn of 2019 I photographed fungi in Dudenpark, Brussels. Fungi are the oldest living species on our planet. They build and spread their communities across human borders, continents, laws ... They take over land without asking permission. They clean up toxic messes in disturbed landscapes and shake the land back to life to create liveable grounds for animals, plants and maybe humans. They have the power to transport energy between weaker and stronger trees, to keep forests alive or to kill them. Their spores are invisible and spread and spread and spread. “The uncontrolled lives of mushrooms are a gift — and a guide — when the controlled world we thought we had fails.”

(Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, ‘The Mushroom at the End of the World, On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins’, Princeton University Press, 2015)

The project consists of an installation and a publication. The accrochage shows a number of blow-ups of marcro-photographed fungi. The prints will appear and disappear according to the temperature in the room. Two heating systems are installed under the works to provide change. By a timing system the heaters will go on and off. The viewer will not be able to control what he sees. Each hour the images will be different showing and hiding parts of the work. The (un)natural process of appearance is accompanied by the responsibility, care and patience of the spectator.

FUNGI B005, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI B002, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI C002, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in wooden metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI C001, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in wooden metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI B001, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI B005, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in metal frame, mdf, unique

THESE WORKS ONLY APPEAR IF IT IS HOT ENOUGH

LET THE HEATWAVES ENTER

+ 1,5°C

YOU CAN ONLY SEE THEM IF THE CONDITION IS RIGHT

WAIT FOR IT OR LEAVE

FUNGI B004, 2019, 30x40cm, Black thermochromic on archival inkjetprint, frame in metal frame, mdf, unique

FUNGI (book)

2019

Title: 'FUNGI'

Author: Dries Segers

36 pages, 42x28 cm

200 copies

design: Chloé D'hauwe & Ine Meganck

text: Hannah De Meyer

print: Stockmans, Duffel

ISBN 9789463883092

ORDER through e-mail OR at malenki.net, Copyright Bookshop, FOMU Bookshop

NEVER, NOWHERE

2018/2019

241 minutes’, cyanotype on unbleached cotton, wooden sticks, 150x225cm, 2018 / right: Caroline Van den Eynde & Denitsa Todorova

‘72 folds’, cyanotype on unbleached cotton, 150x196cm, 2019

‘86 folds’, cyanotype on unbleached cotton, wooden sticks, 150x228cm, 2018

‘241 minutes’, cyanotype on unbleached cotton, wooden sticks, 150x225cm, 2018

‘70 folds’, cyanotype on unbleached cotton, 150x226cm, 2019

143 FOLDS

2018

143 folds', 2018, cyanotype on cotton, 450 x 700 cm at 019, Gent (B)

The work '143 folds' was made site-specific for the arthouse 019 in Ghent, made on 27-28.07.2018.

It consists of a cyanotype of 4,5x7m made by making 143 folds on the roof of the location for 2 hours long using the sun to change the color of the fabric into a deep blue. The cyanotype was made by accident and the discontrol of creating a composition. The lightment proces was fixed by washing it in the river next to the building. After this the wet fabric was pulled up the flag pole to dry.

I would like to thank Bieke Criel, Michiel De Cleene, Koba De Meuter, Nele Dieleman and Valentijn Goethals for supporting this process. photos: Michiel De Cleene

BURN OUR WINGS

2018

'to take leave', duoshow with Bram De Jonghe, DMW Gallery, Antwerp

In 'burn our wings' I made use of the anthotype process to contactprint images using ink sensitive to light out distillated out of plants, weeds and flowers. It was a search through seasons, forests and layers of the earth to find the right plant for the right purpose.

The anthotypes got lightened for months by natural light until the photographs showed itself onto the paper. When the work was exhibited the images slowly destroy themselves by the light that made them visible.

In october 1833 Henry Fox Talbot wrote about the desire to invent a process which could fixate optical images. It was only in 1839 that this act succeeded. In the meanwhile all photographic images disappeared by the light that constructed them.

THESE WORKS WILL LEAVE

THEY WILL NOT COME BACK

GET USED TO THE AFTER IMAGE

KEEP THEM IN YOUR MIND

ONE DAY YOU WILL MISS THEM

flag, 2018, 28,5x40cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower)

eye, 2019 (in dissolving stage)

19,5x28,3cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower)

times, 2019 (in dissolving stage)

19,4x28cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower)

fence, 2019 (in dissolving stage)

37,5x50cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower)

private isle, 2018, 50x70x3cm, silkscreen with charcoal, elderberries and lilies of the valley

killer, 2018, 50x70x3cm, UV-print on mat plexi directly on wood

the chain, 2018, 30x50cm, UV-print on mat plexi directly on wood

flag (2018), eye (2018) the key (2018), pole (2020), cross (2018), variable sizes, anthotypes/silkscreen, lilies of the valley, nettle, rubus,...

A CIRCLE, A LINE, A CROSS

2019

‘a circle, a line, a cross', soloshow at CCHA, 2019

To make ‘a circle, a line, a cross’ I built a system to catch light trough cut out forms.

I maniputated the transportsystem into a new camera that is able to create a capture forms onto the whole length of the film. This is how images emerge. During the process I’m blind. Light is trying to move inside the system and hits the film during the movement of the mechanical transportsystem. This system is conducted manually, nothing is automatic

WHEN THE FIRE AND THE ROCK AND THE SEA ARE ONE

2019

'when the fire and the rock and the sea are one', 2019, tryptic in custom wooden frame with inlaid brass hinges, archival baryt inkjetprint, 60x120x3cm - Hopstreet Gallery Brussels

This work was made by shooting flashes of light at a rock on the isle of 'Isola Comacina', Italy. Each exposure compiles a new rock out of the same material. The camera doesn't move, only light finds its way.

RESPONDING RAIN

2018/2019

(50.8318722/ 4.3483912), 2019, 33x42cm, archival inkjetprint

(51.0242632 / 3.61875652), 2019, 33x42cm, archival inkjetprint

(50.8313175/ 4.3477196), 2019, 33x42cm, archival inkjetprint

(51.0242632 / 3.61875652), 2019, 33x42cm, archival inkjetprint

Light and toxic pollution are disrupting the biorhythm of humans, animals and insects.

With ‘Responding Rain’ I put silver halide material outside on rainy nights. The drops leave a print directly on the material. The toxics and chemicals in the rain determine a 1:1 impression and color the drops. The light pollution at the specific site influences the color of the background of the image.

(...) It's less like an object and more like the weather. In an object you can tell where the boundaries are, but in the weather it's impossible to say when something begins or ends.

John Cage

BLACK BODY ()

2016/2018

'temp.', Tique ¬ artspace, Antwerp, 2016 & 'The Golden Ass', In de ruimte, Gent, 2019

By its nature photography is an abstracting art, involving a gap between what is seen and what is shown, regardless of the level of documentary fidelity. In ‘black body’ the idea of photography get expanded as a transmutation of energy directly onto the celluloid. The images appear to be purely the record of a photochemical process, evidence of an action of emulsion and light itself.

By creating lens-less images the emphasis of photography shifts away from its signifying function. It examines the material as an imaginative basis for a photographic experience. The use of the apparatus is shifted by the use of power tools (a saw, an angle grinder and a drill) which made cuts inside film-rolls. By enlightening the emulsion with different colour temperatures and light-sources an image generates itself onto the light-sensitive celluloid. These abstract photographs may record or register but do not bear witness except to the presentness of light.

black body (simulation, scan, dfr, CG), 500x750cm, 2018

black body (friction, scan, fuiji), 165x120cm, 2018

black body (friction, scan, kodak 200-7), 165x120cm, 2016

ETUDES AUSTRALES

2018

For these coloured photograms I started from sheet-music of John Cage.

He copied the stars of the galaxy on transparencies, then he covered his ensemble staves with it. By this act music was set.
I did it the other way around and started out from his accidental sheet-music and copied it again on transparencies which I used to make photograms.

Besides that I made several box camera's with more than 70 lenses. The structure is set from the music, I opened holes to create new rhythms and colours.

This work was commissioned by Concertgebouw Bruges (B)

HITS OF SUNSHINE

2017

Soloshow 'Hits of Sunshine', galerie Botanique, Brussels

instead of you seeing the light

here light sees you

and frees

the focus of the lonely, solid sun

from complacent eyes shrouded in clouds

of their own device

fractions of captured light

sculptors of broken time

with calculated strokes of luck

one layer of sunshine

eats away the flesh of another

the trial and error of falling together

in both the moment modelling the surface

and the continuous interaction of duration

burn the cracks that fulfil the drill of memory

from behind mirrored walls

hands scrutinize in wonder

like a blind man bathing

in the burning tide

his eyes of glass, egg-white and storm

crystallize with every wave of foam

poem written by

Philippe François

cosmic reaction (pink study), 2017

68x95, digital inkjet print mounted on dibond, metal frame

atmospheric render (blue), 2017

68x95, digital inkjet print mounted on dibond, metal frame

portrait (sun pressure), 2017,

40x50, inkjet print on japanese paper, wooden frame

cosmic reaction (blue study), 2017

68x95, digital inkjet print mounted on dibond, metal frame

atmospheric render (pink), 2017

68x95, digital inkjet print mounted on dibond, metal frame

hands (sun pressure), 2017,

50x60, inkjet print on japanese paper, wooden frame

sunwriting 14:47, 2017

76x110, digital inkjet print mounted on dibond, metal frame

With the project ‘Hits of Sunshine’ (2017) the camera is pointed at the sun. Different from earlier works this piece is once again made with optics. ‘Hits of Sunshine’ is using the absence of observation, instead the camera gets the time to chemically and physically run through a (controlled) process.

The apparatus is the only observer, it is the only “witness”. The work is balanced between factuality and illusion. A connection arises between science (physics, chemicals), the camera (optics, time) and absence of observation (gaze). All these elements generate photographs which are not based on a reality but are born in their own matter.

UNDECIDED PHOTOGRAPHS

2012/2015

'Fabulous Failures', Museum Botanique, Brussels, 2017, curated by Erik Kessels

& 'The Gods Must Be Crazy - Part Photography', Stilll gallery, Directeurswoning Roeselare

‘Undecided Photographs’ are images without any consciousness on the creation of the photograph. Are these even photographs? By accidents and clumsiness these imagery came on my colornegative through the back of the camera without any control or decision. Yet they are build up by the three key elements of photography: light, space and time.

I only made the decision to use it as relevant. The scanner included dust, color, frame,... . The works are produced in hard plexi. Made out of one piece. All the sides of the plexi are hand-cranked.

These pictures have no anecdotes, neither they have stories or memories. But most important ‘Undecided Photographs’ is missing the core of the medium photography, the selective gaze/view of an author.

SEEING A RAINBOW (book)

2015

Title: 'Seeing a rainbow

(through a window that isn’t there)'

Author: Dries Segers

68 pages + 8 pages

350 copies

design: Ties Goos

words: Jeroen Laureyns, Philippe François,

Dries Segers, Dennis Van Mol & Eva Vermeiren

selfpublished

co-publisher: de Warande

ISBN 9789090289571

(sold out)

TEXT

STATEMENT

In a world ruled by digital data, Dries Segers (°1990) prefers to focus on organic materials, processes and techniques. Sun, water, wind, rain, fungus, plant, insect, tree,... are central elements in his speculative and experimental approach. He engages with and learns from them for developing f.ex. experimental camera and print techniques, plantbased inks and sunprints.

Raw materials are jaded, (non-) human life forms and matter are vanishing and become ghosts. Segers wants to make these disappearing zones visible. He uses photography to explore the relationships between human and non-human organisms or invisible systems of existence. He sees them as ‘vibrant matters’, non-human material with their own reality, strategy and sensitivity.

Both through the production of photographic (print-) processes or by investigating how to visualize invisible systems and materials, Segers builds his practice. Photographic media get the opportunity to be co-creator in this process. This way he moves beyond the traditional confines of the medium photography by focusing on invisibility and uncontrollability.

sources/articles/press

https://perhapsperhapsperhaps.typepad.com/what_the_butler_saw/2019/04/...

http://www.braakland-fomu.be/PORTFOLIODAYS/artists/driessegers.php

https://www.bruzz.be/en/culture/expo/photographer-dries-segers-found...

https://www.instagram.com/dries_segers/

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INFO/CV

°1990, Turnhout

living and working in Brussels, Belgium

BE: 0671.680.062

tel/(+32)(0)477647935

info@driessegers.com represented by DMW Gallery

TRAINING

2013 Master Visual Arts, Sint-Lukas Hogeshool Brussels (B)

2011 Bachelor Visual Arts, Photography department; Sint-Lukas Hogeshool Brussels (B)

2010 Bachelor Fine Arts, Listahaskoli Islands; Reykjavik/Iceland (IS)

RESIDENCIES/GRANTS

2019 House Van Wassenhove, supported by Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens

2019 Fellowship of the Flemish Government

2017 Isola Comacina (Italy), supported by the Flemish Government

2016 Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee (sept - oct)

2016 Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee (april) on invitation

2014 Artist in Residence, De Warande, Turnhout

EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2020 VITRINE gallery, Basel (CH), duoshow 'Our compagnion, our other' with Suzanna Zak

2019 In de Ruimte, Gent (B), 'The Golden Ass'

CAMERA/Centrul de Interes, Cluij-Napoca (RO), solo | ‘never, nowhere’

A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam (NL), ‘Mycelium as Lingua Franca’

Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles (FR), Belgian Night

Centre National de l’Audiovisuel Dudelange (LUX), Portfolio Days

Fotomuseum, Antwerp (B), Photobook Belge

POPPOSITIONS, critical artfair, Brussels (B), ‘Capital of Woke’

Hopstreet gallery - window, Brussels (B), solo | ‘when the fire and the rock’

CCHA Hasselt (B), solo | ‘a circle, a line, a cross’,

CCHA Hasselt (B)’Festival van de Controle’ w/ Francis Alyïs, Chaim Van Luijt, Ariane Loze, ...

2018 The Weekend Room, Gwangju, Seoul (KOR), ‘Open Content’

DMW artspace, Antwerp (B), ‘1+1+1=3’ w/ Denitsa Todorova and Caroline Van den Eynde

019, Ghent (B),SUNDAYS, w/ Martin Belou, Kåre Leander Frang, Santiago Taccetti,...

De Warande, Turnhout (B), ‘Het Gouden Paviljoen’

w/ Daisuke Yokota, Marco Tirelli, Geert Goiris, Ori Gherst, Edith Dekyndt,...

Galerie Hangar Brussels (B), solo | ‘helios’

DMW artspace, Antwerp (B), ‘to take leave’, duoshow w/ Bram De Jonghe

2017 Bogardenkapel ‘Brugge Foto’, at w/ Michel Mazzoni, Sybren Vanoverberghe, Jeroen De Wandel,...

Musée Botanique, Brussels (B), ‘Fabulous Failures’, curated by Erik Kessels,

w/ Ruth van Beek, Matt Stuart, Sarah Carlier, Helmut Smits,...

Fusée de la Motographie by Recyclart (Le Bal, FR), (C/O, Berlin), (PL), ...

Galerie Botanique, Brussels (B), solo l ‘hits of sunshine’

CC Merksem (B), solo l ‘what is behind that curtain’

2016 Fotomuseum Antwerp (B), BRAAKLAND

Tique | art space, .temp, duo show w/ Matthias Ysebaert

Turkish Photography Festival, Fotoğraf Vakfı Foundation, Istanbul (TR)

Antwerp Art Weekend, represented by de Warande & Frans Masereel Centrum

w/ Anton Cotteleer, Koba de Meutter, Hannelore Van Dijck, Arpaïs Du Bois,...

A Reading Room, La Houle at Poppositions Brussels

CAMPO + NEIN, ‘ON ICE’ Gent w/ Gerard Herman, Kasper De Vos, Willem Boel,...

2015 Tique | art space, Antwerp, solo | ‘Seeing a rainbow(...)’

Gouvernement, Gent, solo | ‘Seeing a rainbow(...)’

stilll gallery, ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy - Part Photography’

w/ Jan Kempenaers, Emmeline de Mooij, Ria Pacquée, Katrin Kamrau,...

Tique | art space, ‘Is it a painting’ w/ Manor Grunwald, Ruth Van Beek,...

Unseen Festival Program, Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)

Ithaka, KU Leuven w/ Vesna Faassen & Lukas Verdijk, Ritsart Gobyn,...

2014 Neue Galerie, Augsburg (D), ‘A Process’, Der Greif

Denkmal 37, Brussels, ‘Dear Image, why are you so jaded?’

w/ Jan De Cock, Ash Bowland & Dennis Van Mol

KMSKA, Koningin Fabioalazaal Antwerp, ‘Duo’s - de Modernen’

w/ Jef Verheyen, Jan Cox, Vaast Colson, Jef Geys, Fontana,...

PUBLICATIONS (selection)

2019 'Belgian Night', newspaper edited by Marie Papazouglo & Vincen Beeckman
for Les Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles

'fungi', Dries Segers, self-published
28,2 x 42cm, 200 copies, ISBN: 9789463883092

'new skin/levitations', Hannah De Meyer with a photo-essay by Dries Segers

2018 'S&D#024 / APE#117: Sabotage and Complicity'; Published by APE (Art Paper Editions) & Smoke & Dust

'IMA Magazine' vol. 24, selected as 'The Young Photographers of the Next Generation' (JP)

'ART1ST', as part of 1granary magazine (UK)
'Contact', Maarten Inghels, de Bezige Bij, ISBN: 9789023454779

2017 ‘End to End / Performing Objects', Kristof Van Gestel

2016 ‘Six Questions’, Tique l art paper ISSN: 2468-0907

2015 'uncovered' Daklozenkrant / social project, Newspaper to homeless as founder/editor

w/ Pierre & Maarten Mertens

‘Seeing a rainbow (through a window that isn’t there)’, Dries Segers, De Warande

20 × 27,5 cm, paperback, 350 copies, ISBN: 9789090289571

'.TIFF MAGAZINE', FOMU Antwerp, ISBN: 9789066251854

'Phases magazine' 28/15

2014 ‘Cunning Surroundings’, Kasper Bosmans & Dries Segers, Heilig Graf Turnhout / Anastasis

2008 ‘De Canvascollectie’, Lannoo, ISBN: 9789020978629

LECTURES (selection)

2019 Lecture 'On Invisibility', University Cluj-Napoca (RO)

2018 Open Academy, 'Resistance', Centrale For Contemporary Art Brussels

Lecture 'De Donkere Kamer' w/ Stephan Vanfleteren, Teju Cole and Filip Dujardin

Lecture Department Photography LUCA Brussels

2017 Lecture Shoot Amsterdam, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam (NL)

2015 EXTRA FORT presenation with Christian Vum, Recyclart Brussels

2015 Tiff-talks, Fotomuseum Antwerp