Mobile arts practice — William Denis

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

Village fool paintings

La Grève du fou
Acrylic & spraypaint on canvas, 100x70 cm

Here under: researches

Désir désœuvré
Acrylic & spraypaint on Arches paper, 101x64cm

L’oiseau hésite
Acrylic & spraypaint on Arches paper, 101x64cm

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

2023 Paintings

Spezi
Acrylic & spraypaint on Arches paper, 101x64cm

Les larves seront mouches
Acrylic on canvas, 50x70cm

Fides go live
Acrylic & spraypaint on Arches paper, 101x64cm

Startrip in Xberg
Acrylic on canvas, 60x80cm