Bart Lodewijks

bartlodewijks@gmail.com +32 488 404 524

LOGIS FLORÉAL, COMMISSION FLEMISH COMMUNITY / WABO, BRUSSELS, 2022

While drawing, I hear the resident explaining the intention of the lines on the house front of his neighbour.

Chalk linedrawing on the corner of a house with green and yellow windows

CURAÇAO, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / IBB, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES, 2007

I try to make the drawings so that no one sees anything in them.

Chalk linedrawing on an road with no cars yet with many skid marks

HAREN, COMMISSION PRISON HAREN, BRUSSELS, 2022

I squat down and concentrate, persuading myself that it’s a good idea and that I have the approval of everyone and nobody. Glancing over my shoulder left and right, I draw the first lines.

Chalk linedrawing on top of a tiny stonewall

KOLKATA, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CARF, INDIA, 2018

The geometric shapes I apply to the wall have a calming effect on me. By drawing the world I know so well literally on the city’s skin, I get a handle on things.

Chalk linedrawing on a wall with postboxes and a tree growing through it

KOLKATA, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CARF, INDIA, 2018

‘Where are you from? What is your telephone number? Where are you staying? What is your name? Are you married? What are you drawing? Why are you drawing? What are you doing next? Do you speak Hindi? When are you leaving? How much to you make? Who’s paying you, or is it a hobby?’
When I tell people about the transience of chalk, it never satisfies them.

Chalk linedrawing on a wall with a whole in it and a van behind it

GHENT, COMMISSION DE KOER, BELGIUM, 2019

Flat, elementary drawings without any suggestion of space form the core of my practice. Annie looks at the drawing and says, ‘Nothing exists on its own, and everything we care about is temporary.’

Chalk linedrawing on a concrete wall with anchors on it

CURAÇAO, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / IBB, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES, 2007

The chalk lines are straight, forming the shortest connection between two points.

Chalk linedrawing on a dirtroad

NOORDEREILAND, COMMISSION MURALS INC., ROTTERDAM, NL, 2021

As I’m drawing, I’m constantly aware that I could fall into the water. My drawings thrive in rough places. I distrust beauty but am forever encountering it.

Chalk linedrawing on a the edge of a quay, just above the water

NOORDEREILAND, COMMISSION MURALS INC., ROTTERDAM, NL, 2021

‘I was wondering what intelligent child might have drawn such a thing,’ says a well-to-do woman.

Chalk linedrawing on a cornerhouse, from a low perspective

RIO DE JANEIRO, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CAPACETE, BRAZIL, 2010

For two winters and one long summer I searched in Rio de Janeiro for suitable places for my chalk drawings.

Chalk linedrawing on a messy backstreet with an open manhole

RIO DE JANEIRO, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CAPACETE, BRAZIL, 2012

Locals led me to the places where everyday life plays out, places that retain their special meaning for those who return to them time and again.

Chalk linedrawing on an also messy backstreet with people, a dog, a pigeon and a handcart in the middle of the street

ISTANBUL, FATIH, RESIDENCY PLATFORM 0090, TURKEY, 2023

The houses, streets and walls are full of cracks and holes, holes that reveal the city’s insides.

Chalk linedrawing over grafity and over a hole in a wall

RUIVENSTRAAT, COMMISSION MURALS INC., ROTTERDAM, NL, 2023

‘You could slope the right side down a bit more steeply. Then the drawing would look more like a chips cone and we’d know what we were talking about,’ said Mireille, a neighbourhood resident with a strong interest in art.

Triangular shaped chalk linedrawing on the brick sidewall of a house, in between 4 windows

THE RUISBROEK CHURCH, GIST / TRIENNIAL OF THE ZENNE VALLEY, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 2023

It’s coming down buckets, but I’m high and dry drawing in the alcove.

Condensed chalk linedrawing on the bow of an alcove

NEW NEIGHBOURS, COMMISSION PRISON OF HAREN / QUASI MUSEUM, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 2023

The drawings in the two cells are discovered by the guards, whereupon I receive a reprimand from the higher-ups and almost get kicked out of the prison. As a result of the incident, though, I climb higher in the inmates’ pecking order.

A green chalk linedrawing on the wall of a prisoncell.

NEW NEIGHBOURS, COMMISSION PRISON OF HAREN / QUASI MUSEUM, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 2023

Aside from the buzzing sound of the black water filter, it’s eerily quiet. It’s unreal to think that behind the cell doors are people of flesh and blood.

White chalk linedrawing on a grey wall, around a light yellow doorpost, from a thick solid door. A camera sits right besides it and the shadow of the balcony adds a nice interplay

NEW NEIGHBOURS, COMMISSION PRISON OF HAREN / QUASI MUSEUM, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 2024

When I show the Capo how the chalk drawing gets released, he says, ‘All the gorgeous weather passes us by without taking any notice. People on the outside don’t see us at all. Do you think we still matter?’

A blue colored chalk drawing on a concrete wall, next to a barred window

NEW NEIGHBOURS, COMMISSION PRISON OF HAREN / QUASI MUSEUM, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 2024

One day, when my guard is down, my notebook disappears. In that instant I lose everything I’ve written about prison life.

A wide chalk linedrawing high up on the wall, above two doors

KOLKATA, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CARF, INDIA, 2018

The long drawing sessions have caused me to turn inward and I’ve become unaccustomed to distant views, as if I live in the dark all week.

Several chalk linedrawings on a wall, colourful linnen cloths hanging in front of it

KOLKATA, RESIDENCY MONDRIAAN FUND / CARF, INDIA, 2018

‘They are all gangsters’, says Akram, who seems wiser and is better dressed than the other men under the bridge.

Men hanging around under a bridge, in front of chalk drawings on one the bridges pilars.

Biography

Bart Lodewijks (NL 1972) makes large scale, linear chalk drawings in public and private spaces. The drawings can be found on building facades, in hospitals and offices, but also inside private homes and the surrounding streets. His distinct abstract drawings respond to the social context in which they are made.

In the case of a long-term project, the artist documents the process in writing, photography, film and lectures. Images and texts come together in books, made together with art publisher Roma publications since 2004; an essay was published in the Mondriaan Fund essay series. Film documents are made in collaboration with filmmaker Griet Teck.

The Dutch Government Architect and the Flemish cities of Ronse, Genk, Ghent and Brussels have commissioned long-term projects. Emergent (Veurne, BE) commissions drawings in private homes since 2014. Lodewijks worked with S.M.A.K. Ghent (KunstNu 2005 / Moscou Bernadette 2007-2010 / TRACK 2012 / Kathmandu Triennale 2016 / Parkeerkunst 2016 / Étude 2020 / book launches at S.M.A.K. in 2010, 2014, 2017, 2024). Other collaborations include: Capacete - Rio de Janeiro (2010 and 2013), The Model, Sligo - Ireland (2013-2016), Whitechapel Gallery - London (2014 and 2015), BOZAR - Brussels (2016), MMCA Seoul (2016), Calcutta Art & Research Foundation India (2018), KAAP Brugge (2019), New Care Home Merelbeke, BE (2020), Community Center WABO Brussels (2021-2022), Murals Inc, Rotterdam (2019-present), Nursery Bambino - Brussels (2020), Art festival Watou, BE (2021), Production Platform 0090 Antwerp-Istanbul (2022 - present), Emergent galerie Veurne (2013, 2014, 2022), New prison in Haren, Brussels (2022-24), solo exhibition Enter Enter, Amsterdam (2024)

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Publications