The final collaboration in the program Acts of Care: Solidarity and Empowerment, jointly explored by SEA Foundation and the Off the Grid / Cas-co in Leuven, is a residency of Dutch artist Chantal van Rijt. Chantal van Rijt was M‑resident with Maud Gourdon in 2019–2020, for which they made an exhibition together during M‑idzomer in M Leuven. As a former resident of Museum M, she was invited by Off the Grid to make one design for a giant flag, a permanent public art installation on the playground of Brede School Stroom, Leuven. In order to facilitate sustainable relationships between artists and art organisations, and in order to initiate sustainable cross-border relationships, Chantal van Rijt was suggested by Cas-co for the extended collaboration with SEA Foundation.

During the week of her residency, Chantal van Rijt will continue with the investigation of materials used in her previous work A Plea for the Unpleasant. Especially, she will delve into the materiality of shellac varnish. Her artistic research is driven by the exploration of tiny worlds which she often expands into different formats and sizes, offering a viewer a site where one can relate to those who are doomed to be overlooked. Afterwards, the work will be exhibited in the vitrine as a part of the series of exhibitions WARP, which is dedicated to showing works of artists from the extended Brabant region.

Chantal van Rijt bio

The practice of Chantal van Rijt is driven by experimentation. Like a contemporary alchemist, she dives into the material stories of plants, animals and other natural substances. Inspired by researching histories and possible futures, she often takes a single point and lets it unravel into an extended landscape. Her subjects are found in the organic realm as well as in the clinical cradle of a laboratory. Protagonists that have made an appearance in the work are woodworms, the sun, the deadly taxus baccata and the earstone of a fish.

Chantal van Rijt (°1984, NL) lives and works in Brussels. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from KASK in Ghent and has previously exhibited at Bredaphoto, 019, International Film Festival Rotterdam, In de Ruimte, SB34 and Museum M. Van Rijt received the Mathilde Horlait-Dapsens Prize in 2017 and the Mondrian Fund for Young Talent in 2019.

Chantal van Rijt website