Whether through filmmaking, VideoSculpture, theatre, printmaking, or the exploration of emerging technologies, Emmanuel Van der Auwera investigates quintessential cultural shifts, questioning our visual literacy and interrogating the relationship between the currency of the image and the ‘currency of emotions within the image’. His work has been exhibited or acquired by institutions including the Dallas Museum of Art, KANAL -Centre Pompidou, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Palais de Tokyo, Pinakothek der Moderne, HEK Basel and many others. During OFFSCREEN Paris, he has an exhibition at Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels. Upcoming institutional exhibitions include those at Z33 in Hasselt and the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève. An early monograph of the artist’s work has been published by Mercator Fonds and Yale University Press.

In the Videosculpture presented at OFFSCREEN, the polarizing filters of the screens have been partially removed, manually deconstructed into fleeting strips. Here, the DIY nature and punkish poetic gesture of taking a knife to the screen remains visible. On close inspection, this techno altarpiece reveals the dust and dirt as the glue of the machine is cut apart. Van der Auwera hence creates a distance from the event, flattening it through abstraction. This distance allows one to rethink and shift perception, escaping the problem that exists through ubiquitous exposure.

Harlan Levey Projects (HLP) was co-founded by Wing Lam Kwok and Harlan Levey in Brussels, Belgium in 2013. Initially a project space for social dialogue and cross-disciplinary conversation, HLP turned its core focus to collaboration and support of ambitious and innovative artistic practice. The gallery works closely with a small group of artists, tending for narrative-driven, conceptual and often research-based work, which explores various social, scientific and technological phenomena. In 2021, the gallery opened a new location (HLP 1080). This new space hosts a maximum of 5 exhibitions a year, taking a slow approach and offering more time for reflection.