WIND@Conscience20
07.12. - 13.12. 2026
Hendrik Conscienceplein 20 2000 Antwerp
(incl. Art Antwerp weekend 10.12. - 13.12.2026)
I cordially invite you to my first solo show at Conscience20
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Private Preview:
07.12.2026
6 p.m. / 18:00 (and by appointment)
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Press/Media event:
08.12.2026
11 a.m. / 11:00
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Vernissage with a performance, music, food and drinks:
08.12.2026
5 p.m. / 17:00
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Finissage:
13.12.2026
4 p.m. / 16:00
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From the initial material impulse on the wall to the right of the entrance to the kinetic deconstruction in the shop window, WIND@CONSCIENCE20 marks a double in-situ installation that merges equally with the gallery's architecture and the multilayered history of Antwerp. It is a trajectory of self-assertion, culminating in the radical 'Windmill Rotation' - the ultimate liberation of the viewers' gaze from verticality and architectural determinism.
Artist's Statement
Bochum, Puerto de la Cruz, Antwerp. All options. Experience. Moods. Thoughts. Materials. Light. Colour. Stories. Beauty. Traumas. Coping. Queer views. Self-assertion. Freedom.
My queer perspective is a disruptive technology. It is the tool I use to dismantle the hierarchy of the viewer's gaze. It stems from the ever-defiant-queer impulse to break existing rigid norms (mainstream/hetero-normative) and the viewers' perspectives and it materialises on an autobiographical or societal level. The results very often defy being caught on camera - simply because the physics behind the chosen materials make it impossible to do so. Thus, you are forced to fully experience it with your own body only.
As a multi-disciplinary and post-digital artist, I work at the intersection of material, colour, form and technology. My practice is an ongoing evolution - a process in which I translate classical artistic materials with 21st-century appeal, such as interference effects, into raw, handmade works. I engage with the physical immediacy of the material, applying neon acrylics, shellack or scattering reflective particles onto different substrates or into high-gloss lacquer on objets trouvés.
This practice is deeply rooted in my biography - an archaeology of surfaces. My material understanding emerged from the radical juxtaposition and tension between the raw construction sites of my youth, defined by woodchip plaster, polystyrene, coarse sandpaper, bitumen, electrical cables and a vast array of tools and the unyielding elegance of my mother, who wore furs and finest fabrics when representing the family. During my years as a fashion designer (2006-2009) and, later, mood board/trend board designer, I learned to technically harness these contrasts. Today, I translate this archive into my art: when I stretch dupion silk over industrial constructions or experiment with fish leather, it is a form of architectural healing - the transformation of profane origins into a sovereign, queer aesthetic.
Simultaneously, I use digital tools to translate my analogue sketches into fine-art prints or complex material architectures, utilising innovations ranging from 3D printing to complex sandwich constructions for realisation. For these state-of-the-art materials, I see myself as an orchestrator. Like a conductor, I can play various instruments myself, but my core strength lies in translating complex emotional narratives into technical precision by conducting a network of specialists.
This trajectory - moving from the dust, smell, pain (and kind of a pre-mature apprenticeship) of the construction site towards the mastered precision of fashion design with all their own vast arrays of tools - culminates in a simple, yet radical stance: "Smile with Pride"!
Starting in March 2026, all this will broaden, following a new itinerary. My practice expands through a dedicated week each month at my/our collective studio and producer gallery on Calle Mazaroco 23, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. The Canary light becomes a structural component of my colour-material-size logic for handmades, while I continue to conduct more complex projects from my base in Bochum and for my gallery shows in Antwerp.
This duality - the raw physical gesture and the mastered technical precision - allows me to maintain the deeply human dimension of asserting safety through freedom.
CU! Heiko
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Studio visit by appointment:
Calle Mazaroco 23,
38400 Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain
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December 2026
07 to 13
Conscience20
Antwerp
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and by appointment
+49 170 8470658 (message me on WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram)