Hyacinthe Ouattara | Marinda Vandenheede: Reclaimed

10 March - 19 April 2023
Installation View, Hyacinthe Ouattara and Marinda Vandenheede, "Reclaimed", Berlin, 2023
Installation View, Hyacinthe Ouattara and Marinda Vandenheede, "Reclaimed", Berlin, 2023
Marinda Vandenheede creates sculptural objects, works on paper, and paintings that employ natural, used, and discarded materials. "I tend to work with weathered, natural materials that testify to the beauty of decay." Such materials lend a sensitivity and sense of wonder to her works, contrasting her use of minimalist geometric forms and compositions.

Vandenheede's works on paper contain a rough-edged, imperfect geometry that overlays used paper and other repurposed surfaces - abstract, yet very much part of this world. Her sculptural works border on the surreal as they reform recognizable worn and aging objects into curious arrangements that follow an internal logic.

Vandenheede's practice embraces imperfection, atrophy, and stillness. It is a rejection of perfection, disconnectedness, and consumerism. Layers of time and narrative potential are embedded in her materials. She invites viewers to take a moment to be still and to take a deeper look.

Marinda Vandenheede lives in Waregem, Belgium, where she also studied fine art. Her practice is influenced by the truism that, as humans, we are inseparable from nature, while her early training in graphic design is visible in her sense of composition. Her works have been exhibited and collected internationally, including in Belgium, France, Spain, the UK, Ukraine, and New Zealand.

 

Hyacinthe Ouattara is a multidisciplinary artist from Burkina Faso, living and working in Paris, France. Material, texture, and color are of great importance in his work. His way of painting is predominantly spontaneous and gestural, while his installations play with suspension and the tension between balance and instability.  

 

After training in drawing, he began to represent the human body in a dreamlike, ghostly, and childlike way before focusing on the anatomy of cellular tissues through "human maps." Ouattara expanded his practice through a self-taught exploration of sculpture, installation, and performance.  

 

Ouattara's sculptures, inspired by organic forms, consist of twisted, knotted, and patchworked found textiles. Through them, he reflects on concepts of memory, identity, connection, and intimacy while questioning the ambivalence between appearance and disappearance.  

 

Born in 1981 in Burkina Faso, Hyacinthe Ouattara received training in live model drawing, graffiti, and painting before embarking on a personal approach within the artist collective "Les Autres Yeux" and contributing to the creation and development of the Hangar 11 workshop in Ouagadougou. His work has been exhibited in Paris, Berlin, Dakar, Ouagadougou, Accra, Luxembourg, and Kalgoorlie, Australia.