Dirk Zoete

Drawing forms the basis for all of Belgian artist Dirk Zoete’s (born 1969) work. Starting from drawings, he makes models, sculptures, architectural constructions, photos, films and drawings. Zoete presents his conceptual models concerning man and the world on platforms and in stage sets that form part of his work. He directs variable scenes with a slightly absurd company of characters, animals and their props. In both his drawings and his spatial works, the emphasis is on the surface: the figures are flat and schematic and populate frontal spaces. They function as signs in Zoete’s playful artistic language.

The formal language of Zoete’s spaces and characters is reminiscent of the revolutionary stage sets and costumes of the German Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism, though his figures display a more human, almost melancholy nature.