Uncategorized | Lieze De Middeleir

The People are the City, the City are the People

This series focuses on the city. It’s the people who make the city. Lieze collected pieces of casts of hands of passers-by.

Not in a random place, but on the construction site in Kipdorp, Antwerp. That site is the starting point of the series that brings together pieces of castings of passers-by, stones and material and photographs of the site. The construction site right in the citycenter symbolizes the rapidly changing city, and how people shape their surroundings. All these elements come together in small collages, showing the softness of human skin, contrasted with the hard elements of the construction site.

All photos with people in them were taken by Halframe Creative. Other pictures by Lieze De Middeleir

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Boost your mood

During the Boost your mood week, mental health is put positively in the spotlight for Ghent students. To literally give shape to the slogan luisterend oor nodig? (need for a sympathetic ear?) Lieze De Middeleir made no less than 400 ears. During workshops at all higher education institutions in Ghent, the ears were collected, poured and filled, together with students. The ears could be found on various campuses from late October to early November 2024.

Foto’s on campuses van Soetkin Billiauw

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kom zet u

Lieze De Middeleir’s concept for the Watou arts festival encourages people to reconnect with nature and public spaces. Inspired by the town’s facade benches, she designed ‘traveling chairs’ that are placed around the village, inviting both locals and passersby to sit and enjoy the surroundings. Each chair has a unique armrest imprinted with the skin texture of a Watou resident, symbolizing the connection between the user and the person involved in it’s creation. On each chair you can read a a verse of a poem of Billie Vos. These chairs are collectively owned, people are allowed to move them around.

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Memory boxes

The memory boxes collect the sculptures, photographs and objects from the series Skin (the world). For that series, Lieze De Middeleir traveled to Palestine and Israel in oktober 2022.

With a few pieces of plaster skin in her hand luggage, De Middeleir set off for Israel and Palestine. In the middle of contrasts and inequalities, De Middeleir always looks for a new place for her sculptures. Uninvited in public space, space that is hard fought for. The sculptures add a bit of humanity to the hard environment.

The plaster pieces of skin come from female models. The casts not only show human skin, they also reveal the marks left by clothing. The attentive viewer can detect subtle lines in the soft forms. In the photographs, the sculptures sometimes seem to disappear and almost become holes in the landscape, with the outline catching your eye, raising the question “Is that real?”.

On the 26th of January 2024, Memory box 3 was shown in Home Gallery in The Hague, exactly the place where the ICJ made a ruling about Palestine that day.

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Bodies in the city

From 15 September 2023, you can encounter the sculpture duo ‘Bodies’ by artist Lieze De Middeleir on the streets of Ghent. Even more: as a passer-by, you can participate in the artwork by giving the sculptures a new place in the city and sharing a photo on social media with the hashtag BodiesInTheCity.

A project with support from the City of Ghent #Alleskan
Pictures by Bram De Backer and Liam Van Tornhout
#BodiesInTheCity

https://vimeo.com/1072555399?share=copy

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Bodies

The plaster duo Bodies is a continuation of the White Bodies series, this time without a safe white shell made by the artist. The fragile casts enter directly into the harsh environment of construction sites, with vulnerability as their central theme.

Like in the series White Bodies, Lieze claims a place in the world for her sculptures.
Bodies consist out of one female and one male leg. Hardley anyone notices the difference. Both deserve an equal place in the world, regardless of gender.

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Drawings

All drawings are inspired by shapes from De Middeleir’s studio: casts, moulds, or pieces of existing sculptures. Casts of the human body become abstract forms that refer to a universe of their own.

You can buy an existing drawing, or order a personalized one with the colors, shapes and patterns of your personal preference.

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Pattern II

2020 – 180 x 35 x 35 – wax, colored wood and metal bolts

Pattern II appears at first sight to be an abstract pattern, but is composed of casts of the female collarbone. No distinction is made between postive forms and negative forms, casts and moulds are of equaly valued. The pattern spreads out over two bright yellow beams, plucked directly from a construction site. The hardness of the beams contrasts with the soft aspects of the human body, made out of wax.

With her sculptures, Lieze De Middeleir walks the boundary between image and reality. De Middeleir uses pieces of reality in her work in the form of casts, and by processing readymades. In this way the connection with reality is visualized, while at the same time the boundary between reality and work of art is blurred. As soon as someone notices the pieces of reality and links the meaning to them, it suddenly becomes clear that the universe of the artwork starts.

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Pattern of white bodies

White bodies n°2 (single piece) – 2020 – plaster
Pattern of White bodies – 2021 – acrylic resin and metal

White bodies n°2 transforms into Pattern of White bodies.

Pattern of White bodies in a public park in Brussels.
At first sight, De Middeleir’s works form an abstract pattern, but when you look closer, you discover parts of the human body. Pattern of white bodies is a continuation of two of her series: the Pattern series on the one hand and the White bodies series on the other. Abstract patterns in a playful composition are central to the Pattern series. This new sculpture travels around, just like White Bodies. Every environment can serve as a plinth and the composition can be reconstructed over and over again.
By using her own body as a reference for the human figure, Lieze De Middeleir on the one hand objectifies herself, but on the other hand takes the spectator along in a very personal story. Our human body changes constantly, so that her sculptures are a snapshot of the body. The transient nature of that snapshot again contrasts with the classical, solid character of a sculpture.

Pattern of White bodies in the Poortersloge in Bruges.
De Middeleir developed this installation especially for the art contest Input/Output.
The hexagonal shape of the scaffold brings the characteristic exterior of the historical building inside and refers to the typical tower of the Poortersloge.

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White bodies n°1

2020 – plaster, metal and Plywood

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White bodies

2020 – plaster and metal
Sculptures and digital drawing

White bodies is a serie of traveling sculptures with the environment as plinth, uninvited in public space. Each space can serve as the pedestal, the composition can be reconstructed over and over again. A contrast between the steadfastness of the sculpture and the transience of the action arises. In that way sculptures, often regarded as static objects, acquire the same transience as the human body.

By using her own body as a reference for the human figure, Lieze De Middeleir objectifies herself on the one hand but, on the other hand takes the viewer into a very personal story. Our human body is constantly changing, the sculptures are a snapshot of the body.

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Pattern I

2019 – 180 x 45 x 45 – Plaster and metal

Pattern I shows an abstract pattern, made by casts of the male knee. It’s a sculpture that explores how the base construction can merge into the surrounding area. The outline almost becomes a drawing and functions as a blank canvas for a subtle projection.

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Aanraking

2018 – 60 x 40 x 40 – plaster and metal

This work appears as an abstract pattern, until you notice that it’s completely build with prints of the artists hands.

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Wenteling

2017- 2018 – 160 x 30 x 30 – Colored plaster and wax

The layers of colour and the vibrant base refer to a world of its own, until you discover the traces of the human body.

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Construction

2017 – 15 x 7 x 5 – wood and colored plaster

Construction is a little piece of the human body, held by a man-made construction.
But of course, also the human body is a construction of the artist.

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Print

2017 – 25 x 15 x 10 – Plaster and fabric with print

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Afdruk

2018 – 110 x 70 x 45 – Plaster and metal

Sculpture accompanied by a drawing on silk paper on a metal and plexiglass display.
Afdruk explores tactility. Fine lines, subtle colors and detailed shapes contrast with the hard iron construction.

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Self-portrait – stage II

2017 – 135 x 60 x 40 – Wax and colored plaster

The self-portrait changes from a trace, a mould to a corpulent form. Both the positive form and the negative form are a complete valued state of artwork. It seems as if self-portrait in its second phase only refers to itself, but the attentive observer discovers the footprints, which are a clear reference to the existing world.

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Self-portrait – stage I

2016 – 175 x 80 x 60 – Metal, fabric and plaster

Self-portrait (stage I) is an interplay between sculpture and performance, it appears to be a construction waste bag with a mark of the human body. When does the process of creating become a work itself? How many traces of the human body are needed to recognize the past presence?

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Herinnering

2016 – 165 x 100 x 55 – Perforated metal sheet

The viewer can easily recognize a human covering himself with a blanket, at the same time you can feel the void.

The contradiction or dialogue rises at the level of meaning but also on the level of material.

This sculpture was realised at the university Burg Giebichenstein – Halle, Germany.

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Skin

2015 – Aluminium construction of a water barrier and wax and analogue photograph

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CV

The People are the City, the City are the People

Boost your mood

kom zet u

Memory boxes

Bodies in the city

Bodies

Drawings

Pattern II

Pattern of white bodies

White bodies n°1

White bodies

Pattern I

Aanraking

Wenteling

Construction

Print

Afdruk

Self-portrait – stage II

Self-portrait – stage I

Herinnering

Skin