one AUTOMATON, multiple AUTOMATA
It is an old Greek word, hence those somewhat bizarre endings. Literally, 'automaton' means a 'self-moving and independently operating machine' . So it works without electricity or digital junk: it is purely mechanical with transmissions, gears, and pawls. Just a single lever sets everything in motion.
I make automata as storytelling machines. I tell small, visual, repetitive stories with them. By turning a handle, you set gears and mechanics in motion that—connected by copper rods to wooden sculptures—bring those images to life.
Cracking and squeaking. Peculiar sound.
I make my automata exclusively from recycled wood that I gather from
local carpenters or fallen trees in my city.
I tour Europe with my automata. I have built several art installations (such as 'Automata Carrousel' and ' The King & Queen of Belgian Waffles') with which we have already been displayed in a Paris museum, next to the Great Elephant in Nantes, in the middle of the Danube, or imposingly along the Thames.
My studio is in Borgerhout (Antwerp) and is located behind the 'smallest museum in Belgium (and far beyond)' . An automata museum where I exhibit a new automaton every season.
I also give workshops at schools or for groups. Pupils and students then create their own automaton. Always great times.
Turn that handle and bring the AUTOMATA to life!
Touring throughout Europe and a first solo exhibition
With my Automata Carrousel, I tour throughout Europe, visiting renowned festivals and even museums. In this sense, I have already had temporary exhibitions of my mechanical storytelling machines in global cities such as London, Paris, Budapest, and Madrid, as well as in beautiful squares or city parks in France, Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Hungary.
In September 2024, I held my first solo exhibition in an art gallery in Antwerp (Conscience20). I showed design drawings and screen prints of my automata, as well as some of the automata themselves (you can find images of that work in the webshop).
Close by—on the idyllic Conscienceplein —the Automata Carrousel stood gleaming all that time (for three weeks) in front of a church facade designed by Rubens.
The regional television came by for a report about that expo.