You are welcome to attend the opening of "Lady Rain", an exhibition by Jeffe De Brabandere and Ian De Weerdt at *FAAR*. The vernissage will take place on 4 May 2023 from 18h. The exhibition will be available to visit on the weekends of 6-7 and 13-14 May, between 2-6pm each time.

Jeffe De Brabandere (Borgerhout/Belgium, 1998) lives and works in Antwerp. De Brabandere received his bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Sint Lucas Antwerp, and then obtained a master's degree in sculpture from Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Jeffe De Brabandere is represented by *Geukens & De Vil* and has previously shown work at "Let's get out!" at Ooidonk Castle, FAAR, Arttelex, Kunstenhuis Harelbeke, Factor44, Galerie Geukens & De Vil and Finis Terrae, the Antwerp art walk that went on at thirteen locations with fifty participating artists including Francis Alÿs, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Luc Tuymans, and Otobong Nkanga. De Brabandere is also part of artist collective FAAR.

De Brabandere's work mainly consists of bringing together, tying, clamping and winding various materials. His work has two major themes: how we view animals and the past. De Brabandere argues that animals are the 'other' to us. We do not know how an animal thinks, feels, experiences the world and so on. It is something that stimulates our imagination. The past also stimulates our imagination and, like animals, we view it with our current social context as a frame of reference. In De Brabandere's work, the animal and the past come together. He not only refers to animals as they figure in ancient stories, but also shows remains of animals - skulls, teeth, horns, antlers, etc. - found or excavated as archaeological finds. Often these remains are wedged or tied up. The animal and the past are trapped in the way we experience it and are not free to escape our thinking and looking.

Ian De Weerdt (Antwerp/Belgium, 1996) lives and works in Antwerp. He obtained the master's degree in sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Ian De Weerdt is HISK laureate of the year 2022. His work has already been shown at Forbidden City, Lichtekooi, NowBelgiumNow!, PONTI, Kunstenlab Deventer, Gallery Gallery, Factor44 and Ulteriur 2022.

De Weerdt's work is an outburst of explosive energy, which transcends the context of mediums and disciplines to act as an erratic multi-disciplinary, multi-mediumal way of being. It is political but not merely; critical but not merely, reflexive but not merely. It holds both an antagonistic expressive mode of action, without letting go of playfulness and personal experimentation. It juxtaposes a conceptual exploration of semantics and materiality with an anarchic attitude ridiculing the construction of meaning as such.

-Ory Dessau

opening 4 May 18h
open 6-7, 13-14 May

FAAR
Hertstraat 5,
2100 Antwerp.