THE A5 MAGAZINE RESORT: GUEST NO.4: KOEN MEERSMAN

A5:RESORT is a virtual space in which we host artists and designers, inviting you to take a peek into their work. Our next guest is the artist Koen Meersman.

"My work is some sort of homage to the beauty of small and insignificant things."

Hello Koen and welcome to our Resort. What did you choose to present?

Coherent to my way of working, and to my way of seeing the world, I have been developing a series of drawings with Indian ink and liquid paint on paper, over the last couple of months. These drawings consist of a systematic repetition of a small insignificant curved line. The spaces created in these drawings are abstract and fragile landscapes, which allow the curved lines to somehow live their own lives, to deform themselves, and to adjust themselves to the dimensions of the paper.

This series of drawings is currently available through the Margaret Thatcher Projects gallery in New York. I however, took the opportunity to initiate and present a series of similar drawings albeit on a larger format of paper sheets, which can hang on the wall directly without being framed. Each drawing has a principal color, though the drawings are made on white paper.

BLUE FIELD // 2014 // Liquid water paint on paper // 70 cm x 100 cm | Photos by ELINE VANSTEENKISTE

Who are you and where are you from?

My name is Koen Meersman. I am an artist, though I was trained as an Interior Architect. I also work as a teacher in an art and design academy. I was born in the Flemish part of Belgium. Later on I moved to Scotland, Barcelona en New York. Right now I divide my time between Antwerp and Barcelona. Also I teach in Rotterdam. So it is rather hard for me to precisely say where I am from, which defines me who I am, I guess.

What inspires you?

I like to create abstract spaces based on the systematic repetition of form, color, materials and content. The applied and repeated object or unit – like a piece of paper, a short line, a cable tie, a piece of rattan stem, a staple – has no special meaning. It is the object without any economic, emotional nor a social value. Nevertheless, the abstract space created from the obsessive repetition of this unit can change one’s perception of the surrounding context.

My perception can change based on the long, slow and manual process, and based on the intimate relation, which is established with the applied units, while the created space will offer the opportunity to its observer to reflect upon the surrounding context, even if it is just for a single second, and to modify it’s perception.

Apart from being eclectic, my work is some sort of homage to the beauty of small and insignificant things; a fragile approach, which is applied onto every work or series of works. The observer, too, participates in this fragility through the contemplation of the vulnerable, the ephemeral, the sensitive.

So I guess I am inspired by systems, simple things, and of course, the beauty of it.

GREEN FIELD // 2014 // Liquid water paint on paper // 70 cm x 100 cm | Photos by ELINE VANSTEENKISTE

Tell us about a significant moment in your career/work/life

I guess arriving in a new city and building your life there is quite significant; every time it has been. On a daily basis I experience rather significant moments when I teach, when I sit with my students and talk to them about their projects. I like the way they look at things, and I love their stories. Though I am the teacher, it is incredible how much I learn from them.

Where can we find you?

You can find some of my work through my blog and Facebook:

www.koenmeersman.tumblr.com

www.facebook.com/studiokoenmeersman

You can also find me through the website of the Margaret Thatcher Projects gallery: www.thatcherprojects.com/artist/Koen_Meersman/works/

What is the best place we shouldn’t miss when visiting your town?

Since I divide my time in two cities, I guess I owe you two answers.

What I most like in Antwerp is to get up early on a Sunday and buy some pastry from the Kleinblatt bakery and eat it on a bench in the park.

My answer for Barcelona cannot be but the beach. Again, getting up early and being the first one to arrive there is priceless. It is all about those small things.

Who would you like us to invite to the A5 Resort?

One of my most favourite artists is my friend Giannina Urmeneta Ottiker, a Belgian-Peruvian photographer. She has the ability to look for detail and fragility in a space, a body, a face, and knows how to frame it like no other. www.guo.be/index

Well, thanks for being our guest and have a pleasant stay… cheers!