top of page
All Images: Gilles Hellemans, Spend some time in a concrete shadow, 2023. Performance and acrylic paintings on paper 24 x 30 cm (framed). Installation view of Rhizome Structures, a group show at Pop-Up Raum Grindel, Hamburg, 2023. Costume design: Stephanie Becquet. Images by: Stephanie Becquet, Irina Martyshkova and Gilles Hellemans
Walking around a post-war modernist apartment block in Antwerp, I was captivated by the striking silhouette of the building and its bountiful balconies. The semi-circular shadows cast across the walls created a sense of enigma and added texture. They had an alienating feel to them, yet at the same time, I could imagine them being the perfect spot for a modern-day Shakespeare to dream up a fairytale set in brick and concrete. Could these circular shadows be the birthplace of young, queer love?
bottom of page