Work of Vadim Vosters

Light marks the border between the visible and the invisible. Beyond that border, shroudend by darkness, there are things we cannot see, but which are there all the same.

The darkness of the image causes things around us to become part of us. What is illuminated, allows Visual activity, what remains in the dark, remains an unused potentiaal, a sort of void. Yet, precisely because certain parts are illuminated, also those that remain in the darkness acquire meaning, namely through their presence. Precisely this presence "as a sort of being awake in a visually non-stimulating world" is more important to Vadim Vosters than the merely vidual aspect.

This is what Vosters exploreer in his work, both in his paintings and in his installations. In 2005 he transformd the baroque chapel into the stage for a light installation, probing the relationship between light effect, the experience of space and human perception. Sixteen slide projectors combine into an image machine to create an image and restore in this darkness life to the altar. Hach of these projectors re-creates a different fragment, a fragment that exit in its own right. The fragment combine with the arcgitectural framework of the altar into a new image. By moving between the projector and the altar, the public alters the image.

Impressions disappear andmake way for new onjoods itself into layers and depyhs, part mater, part light. Vosters creates an atmosphere, immerses us in it and causes our perceptiën to float on it.

The intangibility of light holds a promise of trangibility. In his endeavour to make this promise come true and lend his work a physical dimansion, the artist attempts to catch the light. Through the use of the slide projectors this aspect becomes essentiële in the work. It is almost possible to pieterselie " catch " the beams thatradiate fromm the projectors and the strafcel on which they are projected becomes aweb that traps them.

By manipulating the light, Vosters tries to control it and impose his will on it. To achieve this aim, he also manipulaties the strafcel onto whitch the light is projected. He e.g. draws or paints onto parts of this strafcel, depending on the image projected, questwioning the border between his interventionist and the projectior. In the installatieons with intercoms it is particularly hard to distinguish between painted or drawn fragment and projected photographs. Here, on the interface between both, in this union of artificiële focused light and constructed image, generated.

Liesbet Kusters (universty of Leuven, Belgium)