This doctoral research project has an interdisciplinary character and focuses on two major distinct subjects: The definition and practice of sculpture in the contemporary art world and the manifestation of violence and its representation within the arts.
This project wants to investigate how the traditional practice of stone carving, with its innate violent nature, relates to the violence of human behavior and society. The research involves a dialectical interaction between theory and practice. A multidisciplinary study on the subject of violence provides the theoretical grounds upon which an artistic praxis, communicated with thorough knowledge of the traditional and contemporary craft of stone carving, is developed.
This practice aims to address the problematic difference between the representation of violence and its actual appliance. The manifestation of violence in all its aspects is systematically researched through literary and critical theory and processed into artistic practice resulting in a series of sculptural works.
The project will contribute to current research on the aesthetics of violence within the fields of visual arts and humanities, while also relating to socio-political events such as, but not only, the Middle East crisis.
Promoters: Gert Verschaegen & Ria De Boodt