Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen
Carla Arocha (b. 1961) is from Caracas, Venezuela, but has been living and working in Antwerp for years. Since 2005 she forms an artistic duo with the Antwerp artist Stéphane Schraenen (b. 1971). Their abstract sculptures start from everyday objects that they strip of their individuality and functionality, reducing them, in this way, to their basic essence and form. By placing them in a spatial context, an abstract interaction between the object and the environment arises, in which light and reflection play an important role. Their constructions constitute an artistic research within and into the rich tradition of abstract art. Their work exists at a moment of confluence of material and idealistic reality, and of static and mobile environment. From there, a synthesis arises in which both the architecture of the space and the movement of the viewer are involved.
Text: Hans Willemse
Translations: Michael Meert