Biography
Elke Gijsemans is a Belgian visual artist working at the intersection of painting, performance and installation. Her practice explores human connection, memory, rupture and repair, and the traces that experiences leave behind.
Rooted in an intuitive and physical approach to making, her work often emerges through movement, gesture and direct interaction with materials. Live performance plays an important role in this process: paintings are not simply produced, but develop through encounters between bodies, space and audience.
Her practice includes live painting for productions such as Hannibal (KVS / Theater Arsenaal) and Burning City (Het Paleis), as well as her work within the collective SOCHA.
Beyond the stage, these processes expand into spatial installations in which fragments, materials and painted surfaces transform the environment. Rather than offering fixed narratives or resolutions,
Gijsemans creates spaces where vulnerability, tension and connection can coexist — inviting the viewer to experience before interpreting.