ARTIST STATEMENT

Koen Soberon and the Healing Power of Art

 

In a recent past Koen Soberon (°1971, Ghent) was forced to put aside his easel and brushes: due to a medical condition it became impossible for him to work with acrylic paint and oil paint anymore. Fortunately, Koen found an alternative way to satisfy his urge to create by embracing photography and the various possibilities of digital media.

 

For Koen, being an artist is an indispensable outlet for his part-time activity as a medical nurse. As a palliative home care assistant, he offers people the necessary comfort during their last moments. His job provides him with a unique outlook on the human condition and determines his views on humanity, life and society. Koen reveals how many people take off their masks in the last stage of life. Depending upon their life path, Koen is confronted with a variety of testimonies that are accompanied with a variety of emotions.

 

The treatment of these life stories always keeps resonating. That is because Koen’s artistic practice departs from a charged inner world and results in a colourful and geometrical imagery. The abstract artworks possess different layers and allude to man’s multilayeredness, impossible for us to experience on a conscious level. Censorship and trauma form the basis for his work that he wants to keep under control as much as possible in the course of the creative process. From this artistic interest Koen studied how smell and audio frequencies can positively affect the subconscious.

 

Koen Soberon’s work serves as a bridge between the inner and outer worlds. Through symbolisation the artist gives shape to the invisible processes resulting from interactions in the brain, an experience that we as human beings can barely comprehend. Even though this topic is far from obvious for many, Koen succeeds in artistically translating this subject through thorough study. His creative force is sensible to an audience and able to impact our spirits in a healing way.

 

 Kunsthistoricus Benedict Vandaele

Maart 2020

 

BIOGRAPHY

Soberon Koen: born on March 9th - 1971,