Kasper Bosmans (Lommel, 1990) has a fascination with history – not as much with the well-known historical narratives as with events that occurred on the fringes. He makes associative connections between the most diverse topics and incorporates these into small, emblem-like paintings. They serve as keys to his spatial installations and collectively make up a new, visual ‘historiography’: one that is less clear-cut, lends itself to interpretation and, above all, invites us to observe and associate.

For Wolf Corridor Bosmans took inspiration from de Kempen, where he was born and raised, a sandy region south of Tilburg which was once part of the Duchy of Brabant. In his research on that area, he takes a kaleidoscopic view. His eye, for instance, comes across the herdgang – a triangular square that played a role in medieval shepherding – and he immersed himself in the archeological discovery of the earliest drop of bronze in a Tilburg crucible. He also studied local household traditions. The ancient custom of women scrubbing floors clean with sand, first strewn about in decorative patterns, prompted Bosmans to create sand paintings.

Bosmans consults both historical archives and the Internet, feeling just as comfortable delving into legends about the saints as local gossip. By going off the beaten path he shows, in fact, that the present and the past constantly interact with each other. And that a new perspective on history allows us to look differently at culture and the socio-political developments in our surroundings. But with his work Bosmans also creates a world of his own in which he feels at home. A world that happens to be formed not on the basis of the heteronormative view, but rather the notion of a queer space, a place also familiar to the LGBTQ+ community.