Femme (2019) Sculpture by Geneviève Vastrade

I practiced my sculptural art mainly on stone for years.

In 1997 I won the David and Alice Van Buuren monumental sculpture prize on the theme of Counterpoint (sculpture in Fontenoille sandstone ) and created in 2005 the commemorative stele of the Ghislenghien disaster (5-ton block of small granite). It’s physically heavy and very “masculine” work. My sculptures from the period are steles, monoliths. An art critic wrote about the work which won the Van Buuren Prize:

“Fugue in three times, cut in Fontenoille sandstone, constitutes more of a work with the material. Metaphor of the fusion and rejection of bodies. Like a somewhat desperate aspiration for dialogue, at the same time as the desire to escape. Where the artist perhaps best expresses counterpoint is in the words that emanate from the unsaid. »

Thus, at the time, isolated from the world under my mask, my helmet and my protective suit, I constantly struggle with this heavy and inflexible material, which keeps me confined in a straightjacket and a monolithic image…

In 2007, I began to take an interest in engraving: it was a turning point for me. I go from the hard and inflexible mass of stone to tin, aluminum, paper. I add, dig or remove material. I experiment with the engraving plate, the paper that will hold the print... I find in this technique, as one would say of Dubuffet: "inventive spontaneity and barbaric tenderness". My engravings are always monotypes. Thus, I go from a masculine, physically arduous art, which requires preparation and mastery of tools, where it is the stone that guides my hands, to a freer, more flexible and more fragile art where I let myself be surprised by the result each time different. An art that gradually reconciles me with my femininity.

Today, I took up stone tools again. I engrave in stone everything my journey has taught me. I enjoy it a lot. Each shard lightens the stone and amazes me…

• Nationality: BELGIUM
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary Belgian Artists