Biography
Elke Gijsemans is a Belgian visual artist and member of the collective SOCHA, working at the intersection of installation, performance, and painting. She explores relational systems, human connection, and processes of rupture and repair in her work.
With roots in live performance, her practice evolves through dialogue with performers, spaces, and audiences. As part of SOCHA — whose works-in-progress are often developed at Theater Arsenaal — and in productions such as Hannibal (KVS) and Burning City (Het Paleis), she creates live stage paintings, transforming the theatrical space into a site of collective presence.
Beyond the stage, her work expands into installations where materials, gestures and spatial compositions are used to explore the balance between the body and the environment, the individual and the collective, and fragility and resilience.
Rather than aiming for resolution, her work creates spaces where viewers encounter tension, vulnerability and the possibility of connection.