François Winants (BE, 1987) is a Belgian artist graduate of La Cambre. He works on the climate system and paleoclimatology. He explores the relationship between art, design, engineering and science. His work oscillates between abstraction and representation. His practice is characterized by the use of scientific tools, DATA and instrument making. His work focuses on the visualization of natural phenomena, writing, biosignature and the integration of artworks as scientific data.

The artworks are presented as a set that reveals the interactions between the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere, the lithosphere, the biosphere and solar radiation. These invisible histories, components of the nature to which we belong, invite us to poetically rethink our way of inhabiting the world. The unknown is no longer that which is distant from us, but the invisible change around us.

The artworks have become the chemical witnesses and physical echoes of a world that evolves without us. The works respond to the environmental crisis through culture, documenting interactions and the acceleration of climate change, and proposing a new reading of the data The field projects are carried out in emblematic sites steeped in history that bear witness to natural phenomena and mutations. The environment participates in the work process as a co-author.

François Winants explores human, meteorological and environmental, geological and climatic temporalities as a multitude of beats, oscillating between natural cycles, breathing, abstract landscape and geological variations. The projects involve transition and time as elements of the landscape, writing  with air and atmosphere as the sensitive materials of the artworks.

Practice combines with science to visualize data and question our perception in order to push back the boundaries of aesthetics and geography 2.0. François Winants' artworks question the place of art in a process of exchange with science. He visualizes and interrogates graphics and scientific data to push back our experience of nature.








CONTACT
François Winants
francois.winants@gmail.com

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ACADEMIC
2015 Agregation (teaching graduation), ENSAV La Cambre, Bruxelles
2013 Master Art visuel et de l’espace, ENSAV La Cambre, Bruxelles
2011 Bachelor Art visuel et de l’espace, ENSAV La Cambre, Bruxelles




EXHIBITIONS
2024 Point de rosée, Théatre de Liège, Liege, Belgium, Mars, curated by Maxime Moinet
2024 Open Studio, SIM Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland, Jan

2023 #Focus2023, B3, Liege, Begium, November
2023 Open Studio, SIM Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland, July

2022 Meakusma Festival, Eupen, Belgium, September
2022 AAC9, Art au centre, Liege, Belgium, June-August, curated by Maxime Moinet
2022 Vertical environment, Spa, Belgium, June-July

2021 Embodied forest, Ecoartspace, world wide web, september, curated by Lilian Fraiji
2021 Meakusma Weekend, Eupen, Belgium, September, posposed
2021 Biennale internationale Petit format de papier, Musée du Petit Format & KIKK, Grand Curtius, Liège, Belgium, March
2021 Biennale internationale Petit format de papier, Musée du Petit Format & KIKK, WARP, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, January

2020 Biennale internationale Petit format de papier, Musée du Petit Format & KIKK, Espace Beau Site, Arlon, Belgium, October
2020 Biennale internationale Petit format de papier, Musée du Petit Format & KIKK, Musée du Petit Format, Nismes, Belgium, September
2020 Open Studio, RAVI, Liège, Belgium, September
2020 Croiser l’espace, L’orangerie, Bastogne, Belgium, September
2020 Reset, Artsouterrain, Montréal, Canada, Febuary, curated by Juliette Bibasse
2020 Open Studio, Millefeuilles, Nantes, France, Febuary

2019 Prix Des Arts, W:Halll, Bruxelles, Belgique, novembre
2019 Utopia, 1919-2019 Bauhaus, Goethe Institut Tunesien, Medina de Tunis, Tunisia, november, curated by Mariem Besbes
2019 Archipelagos of fragility, KIKK Festival, Namur, Belgium, october, curated by Marie Du Chastel, INSTRUMENTS
2019 Open Studio, Abattoirs de Bomel CCN, Goethe Institut Belgien, KIKK Festival, Namur, Belgium, june

2018 Egarements, MCFA, Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium, october
2018 Curiouser, Gare de Bruxelles-Congrès, Bruxelles, Belgium, june
2018 MASSIF CONTINENTAL, Spa, Belgium, march

2015 Dessine toi-même, Institut Saint Luc, Liège, Belgium, june
2014 Transfert vers l’invisible, Musée Art & Marges, Bruxelles, Belgium, september
2013 Dessin, Iselp, Bruxelles, Belgium, june




RESIDENCIES
2023 SIM residency, Reykjavik, Iceland, January
2023 Centre Bang / BPS22, Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada, feb-mars

2021 Meakusma, Eupen, Belgium, july-september
2021 Le Bel Ordinaure, Pau, France, july

2020 RAVI, Liège, Belgium, july, september
2020 Abattoirs de Bomel CCN, Namur, Belgium
2020 AAIR-RAVI, Anvers, Belgium, pre-selected
2020 Centre Bang / BPS22, Quebec, Canada, pre-selected
2020 Résidence Croisée, Vecteur, MilleFeuilles, Nantes, France, febuary

2019 Imagining Ecological Futures, Goethe Institut Belgien, KIKK Festival & Abattoirs de Bomel CCN, Namur, Belgium, june




AWARDS / GRANTS
2023 Aide à la mobilité, Wallonie Bruxelles International

2022 GRAND PRIX DU DESIGN, Platinum winner, INT Design, Montréal, Canada

2021 Künstlerstipendium, Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens, Open studio for forest
2021 Aide à la création, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Artwork of environment
2021 Aide à la mobilité, Wallonie Bruxelles International

2020 Aide à la création, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Artwork of environment
2020 Aide à la mobilité, Wallonie Bruxelles International, info

2019 Aide à la création, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Dessins des Cimes
2019 Prix des Arts, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Bruxelles

2018 Aide à la création, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Artwork of environment
2017 Aide à la création, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, projet INCENDIE
2013 Prix Dess(e)ins, Les traces habiles, Paris, France carnets de 2006 à 2013


EDITIONS

2022 Fire season II, by Fire season
2020 Biennale internationale Petit format de papier, by Musée du Petit Format
2020 Lettre Wallonie-Bruxelles au Quebec
2015 Incidence, Tokyo light, self-producted
2013 Crater documentation, self-producted

2013 Surface documentation, self-producted
2013 Water documentation, self-producted




VIDEO
2020-22 Vertical environment, video, self-producted