Vitrine project

The work of Evelyn Vanoverbeke positions itself both in visual art, architecture, and sound art. Already during her studies in painting, she sought out the limits of the discipline. Moving beyond two-dimensionality, she considers a painting rather as "a surface in which she approaches the edges".
Painting becomes sculpture and vice versa. Meandering between design and sculpture, Evelyn invites the user to engage in a close relationship with her objects. Although she is intrigued by utensils of which the shape is close to its functionality, her designs reveal a certain tension between form and function. Her work makes one wonder precisely because its use is not obvious from the first glance. It is rather in the activation of her forms that the function - or rather, the multiplicity of functions - becomes apparent. Strong is the way her objects encourage the user to have experiences. For instance, Evelyn does not consider a chair just a chair. Once you sit on it, you become aware of how vigorously her objects influence the perception of the spatiality around you. What seems obvious is not.
This interweaving of play, fantasy, and amazement, not only surfaces during the activation of her work but can also be detected at the very beginning of her design process. Through turning, folding, manipulating, perforating, and assembling both existing and new materials, Evelyn creates designs with their own agency, their own force of action, their own will. The question whether to label her objects sculpture or architecture is then no longer relevant. What Evelyn puts into the world are objects that bring people of all ages together and trigger shared experiences.
text by Jolien Naeyaert