This website serves as the primary digital platform to explore the multidisciplinary and phantasmagorical collaborations of Blauwhaus, an artist initiative bridging (Fine) Arts with Apes and #AirCrafts; imagery with language, imagination and play. At Blauwhaus, everything is connected and perpetually in motion: no interpretation is fixed.

All texts, concepts and installations were created by visual artist and initiator Wim Wauman in close collaboration with illustrator (and animator) Isabel Bouttens without whom this project would be impossible.

Some of the artworks in the ‘portfolio’ section were created in collaboration with an occasional #Dreamteam of friends and guest artists or makers such as Madeleine Wermenbol, Kelly Schacht, Warre Mulder and others. Other portfolio posts feature artworks created in the context of Blauwhaus ‘artist residency’ or ‘exhibition’ projects by guests such as Robbert & Frank Frank & Robbert, Baldvin Einarsson, Peter Schoutsen and others.

BEKNOPTE INTRODUCTIE (NL):

Blauwhaus ~ een artistiek en narratief concept en platform van Wim Wauman met als doel het aanleggen van een verzameling, het aanschouwelijk en tastbaar maken van gedachtenkronkels en het verbinden van verhalen via interdisciplinaire initiatieven of samenwerkingen met andere makers, denkers en kunstenaars.

Blauwhaus ~ een #Aardsmodern recreatief* complex en meanderend ‘scheppingsverhaal’ van Wim Wauman in samenwerking met Isabel Bouttens en een artistiek gelegenheidscollectief met kleine kern van usual suspects en gastkunstenaars.

*recreatief ~ vermakelijk + (her)scheppend; met de etymologische snavel gericht op het verkwikkende effect van soelaas en/of herstel #HerstellingsWerkzaamHeden.

EXTENDED INTRODUCTION (EN):

“Blauwhaus” is an experimental and complex concept conceived in 2019 by artist Wim Wauman as the conclusion of his artistic research PhD-project on the complementary trio Arts, Apes and Crafts and as an answer to the fundamental questions raised by his preceding WORK FLOW project (2018).

Initially, the Blauwhaus constituted an installation/exhibition designed to host, ‘connect’ and collaborate with fellow artists, makers and thinkers, but it also encompassed a phantasmagorical ‘twilight zone’ created to induce an enhanced state of (creative) ‘flow’ and to stimulate imaginative forces. A dreamy mental space to conduct DeepResearch®, to approach the daily reality from different perspectives, to inspire others (or drag them in) and to stimulate new narratives and poetic thoughts.

During the spring of 2019, and ‘within walking distance’ from a charming castle in Waasmunster (Eastern Flanders, BE), which was for the occasion renamed ‘Blauwhaus’, the artist and his ‘dreamteam’ of guests collaborated to produce new work and set up a series of artistic interventions and events including a pop-up exhibition/guided walk. The project involved the exploration and extrapolation of local peculiarities and histories involving a mermaid holding a turnip, an abbey by Dom Hans van der Laan, ‘Sole Mio’ blankets, pilgrims, two (or three?) birds and two historical artefacts depicting a ‘Waesmonster’…

The name Blauwhaus is a neologism which refers to the Blauwendael castle; to the Bauhaus which was established exactly 100 years earlier by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar (DE); and gives a nod at the Red House in London (UK) where William Morris surrounded himself with the pre-Raphaelite-circle.

Today, the spirit of Blauwhaus is kept alive in close collaboration with Isabel Bouttens by publishing a series of booklets named Blauwblad and by setting up imaginative and challenging collaborations with enthusiastic creatives from different fields (when the opportunity arises).