William Denis

William Denis is a London - Brussels based artist and designer, born in the Belgian Ardennes. He brings an asserted personal and sensitive touch from his drawing practice into design and communicative projects.

Projects

Artistic projects - Researches on psychiatric institutions

Le Fou du village de Salmaritin

Salmaritin is a fictive village born from the meeting of “La S Grand Atelier”, an Art Brut contemporary center, and myself, where the notion of deviance is constantly questioned within a psychiatric background. In this imaginary space, every artist of “La S” gave themselve a specific role while I incarnated the fool confronting the village’s norms and rules. Through a human, organic and artistic dialogue, I created relationships with the inhabitants of this strange village.

In this book, I tell the story of how I encountered the artists of the atelier in a lineary way during three months, event by event, slowly becoming closer and friends in the end. Through the artworks made together, the crazy anecdotes that happened everyday in this place and interviews with specialists of Art Brut and the psychiatric institution about the importance of the village fool, this work is a celebration of deviance and madness.

300 pages, 24x32cm

Courtesy La "S" Grand Atelier
Lauréat des Amis de La Cambre 2024

The village of Salmaritin

This installation is the final act of the project of “Salmaritin” made during three months at “La S Grand Atelier”, an Art Brut Contemporary center located in the Belgian Ardennes. We collectively created a fictive village where every artist would have a specific role, a place where to live and work, and I would be the village fool, since I had to adapt to the rules and norms of the atelier to meet the people there.
Once all was set and everybody had drawn their own house, we built out of cardboard a maquette of Salmaritin and made it a whole playground to create anything around it.

On the back right of the maquette, there’s a mountain atop of which is a fictive version of a psychiatric hospital close to the atelier, standing there to remind the village of the institution it lives in. From its point of view, every house in the village turns its back from it.

160 x 160 x 90 cm

Some of the houses of Salmaritin, made by the artists for themselves.

Courtesy La "S" Grand Atelier
Lauréat des Amis de La Cambre 2024

Drawings of Salmaritin

A selection of the artworks made during three months at La S Grand Atelier, an Art Brut Contemporary center located in the Belgian Ardennes. These were made as part of the project of the fictive village Salmaritin, to enlarge the small universe we were building together. They were also vectors for human encounters, and creating links in other ways than through vocal dialogues.

Courtesy La "S" Grand Atelier
Lauréat des Amis de La Cambre 2024

Se perdre dans une petite pièce

A text about the wandering of people living in psychiatric institutions, read and played as an audio in an installation. Another version of the same text is written on paper sheets assembled on the bed used in that same installation. This work is a research on the theme of the village fool.

Photos by Ewan Andrade Lopes

Conversation Matters - Le village sans fous

Those texts contain a research on the importance of the «village fool» figure within society and the psychiatric institution, and also an interview of Anne-Françoise Rouche, the director of a renowned Art Brut Contemporary center in Belgium called « La S Grand Atelier ». To illustrate these subject matters, I realised a series of illustration around the theme of the “fool” and took pictures at La S Grand Atelier.

Courtesy La "S" Grand Atelier

Books/illustration

Parties

Mantique tea infusions illustrations

During an internship at Oilinwater studio in Brussels, I worked on a series of illustration on the zodiac signs for a new tea infusions brand called “Mantique” , for which the studio was creating the visual identity before it got on the market. The illustrations will be used on the packaging box, which you can see up here the front on the left and the back on the right, with the drawing on both sides of it.

Le départ de papa

This work is a personal story about the time my dad went to ex Yugoslavia as a peace maker when I was five, in 2006. Going through letters and pictures we sent each other at that time, I wrote a text about how I viewed war as a child, with a vision that went from the heroic idea of it I would see on television, to the reality of a parent’s absence, which you worry about, and make you not want him to be a hero anymore. Through this story of a growth of maturity, I illustrated the text and the feelings of a kid confronted to this situation.

20 x 28 cm, 120 pages

Virginia’s houses

This works tells, through text and illustrations, the life of Virginia Woolf in three different books representing the three main houses of her life. The first book is focused on her childhood and the system she grew in, the second on her youth and progressist minds at the time, and the final one on her adult life, publication and legacy. I wrote, drew and designed the three books.

Avertissement

I worked on illustrating a thesis written by Belgian surrealist poet Paul Nougé, which he wrote as an intro to one of Magritte’s expositions in Brussels. This text explains how painting could save society at the time from going right into a wall, by opening people’s true visions, which I reinterpreted myself with my current vision using acrylic painting.

“Les Belles Lettres” publication

In august 2022, I worked for French publisher “Les Belles Lettres” to illustrate a text about how sci fi works in our consciousness next to casual sciences, written by philosoph Vincent Bontems and physician Roland Lehoucq.

Postal cards from the hand to the head

A series of 20 postal cards telling a one-way conversations, where my hand talks to my head, like an employee to its employer. This project was an introspection of how my body feels along with my soul, and all the thoughts and feelings coming out when i start drawing. This project was made at La Cambre.

Branding/design

ONHA visual identity

Since 2020, I’ve been working alongside Belgian rapper ONHA, from making his visuals to becoming artistic director. As we’re many creatives in different sectors working together on that project, we created a collective named Ovision. I am then part of this collective as a graphic designer, visual artist and director for its visual identity.

Pictures of the release party of “Opale”, ONHA’s first project, for which I made the poster. I also designed visuals for the rapper’s scenic outfit, and the merch that was sold at the event.

A series of visuals made for ONHA’s concerts.

OVISION open mic events

Visual identity and a scenogaphy for an open mic event created by Brussels based collective
“OVISION” which I am a part of.

Roscosmic propaganda

In collaboration with Belgian artist and space searcher Louise Charlier, I worked on a series of posters of propaganda for her space agency called Roscosmic. 10 posters were made as a finality to this project.

Marni theater visual identity

This work is a concept of rebranding for The Marni Theater, a Brussels based place for alternative and contemporary scene arts. The concept behind this identity is the imagination of caves under Brussels, where artistic performances take place inside of it. This work was made at ENSAV La Cambre as a first year Master student.

Radio Esperanzah! 2022

During summer 2022, I worked on a visual identity for a Belgian festvial’s radio “Radio Esperanzah!”. It consisted mainly in creating a series of posters, and further a whole scenography of the place during the festival.

Paintings

Mardi - Sortie de l’usine

Untitled (installation)

Lundi - Rythme

Rythmanalyse - Largage de bombes

Désir désœuvré

La Grève du fou

Here under: researches for this painting

L’oiseau hésite

Pistis circus

Spezi

Les larves seront mouches

Hyenas

Startrip in Kreuzberg room

Drawings

Sketchbook no.1

Sketchbook no.2

Faithbank

Sketchbook no.3