Chloé Dierckx

Chloé Dierckx is both an artist and social scientist. She obtained a PhD at KU Leuven University, Belgium, focussing on the use of artistic methods to disseminate social scientific research. Using a variety of media, her artistic practice is often participatory or socially inspired.

Tetrarchs

Works on the Edge of Chaos

Illustrations

Previous Projects

Ssssh...The Silence Speaks

2023, Mechelen, Belgium

Once in a while, everyone longs for silence, but in our current society everything seems to go faster and become louder. We have become so used to the rush that sudden silence can be overwhelming, because then then we start to hear the voices in our mind.

This participative art project brings an ode to silence. Together with visitors of the Tivoli parc in Mechelen we have made a mosaic from clay, inspired by stone cairns. This mosaic is now permanantly placed in the parc. People are invited to leave behind their worries by writing them down and leaving them inside of the stones.

My earth, four stories from the Kempen
2017, Warande Turnhout, Belgium

This work relates the soil profile of four locations in the Northern part of Belgium (De kempen) to the personal stories of inhabitants of that region. The soil profiles where made of places that carry a special meaning and audiofragments tell about the events that took place on top of that piece of earth: memories about their parents, crashing airplanes, stories about love and seperation, destroyed houses, children games...

(supported by AR-TUR and Warande Turnhout, In the framework of Kempenatlas)

2018
2016, Antwerp, Belgium

This project gives shape to the 'mental space' of the district of Antwerp. By answering a short list of questions, inhabitants and visitors of 2018 Antwerp could express what places are present in their mind. Because they dream about them, long for them, worry about them... Even though these places are often far away, they are -at least momentarily- located in Antwerp. All the answers were brought together on an interactive map that could be consulted in the local library.

Bruin haar bestaat niet
2017, Borgerstein vzw, Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium

'Bruin haar bestaat niet' (Brown hair does not exist) is a series of works co-created in Studio Borgerstein, atelier for artists with a disability.

September 15 1516 22H
2016, Bazel, Wissekerke, Belgium
The installation 'September 15 1516 22h' was created in commemoration of lieven van Pottelsberghe and Livina van Steeland, who were the first inhabitants of the 500 year old castle in Bazel, Wissekerke. This site-specific artwork restores the night sky by depicting the stars in their position of 500 years ago on the background of the curent nightsky.
(Commisioned by the town of Kruibeke)

Austruweel, beneath her heavens
2014, Antwerp, AIR Traces
In 1966, the town of Oosterweel was confiscated by the government in order to make room for the growing port of Antwerp. But even though the village has dissappeared, you can still find up to date weather predictions for it online under it's official name up to 1930: 'Austruweel'. For an exhibition in the port, a series of 30 archival photographs of Austruweel showing only the sky were presented together with a daily updated weather prediction and a reconstruction of how and why the heavens of Austruweel remain remembered.

The Town of Potes
2014, Potes, Colombia
Potes is a small village on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. It owes its name to Valdoina Potes, one of its first inhabitants. Although the village is difficult to reach and far rom plantations and even freshwater rivers, Valdoina Potes once chose to settle here and many of her descendants still choose to stay in the village. Could it be that the series of rocks marking the horizon was a reason for settlement?

The Story of an Air Bubble
2012 - ongoing
This project consist out of the creation of an air bubble. In economical terms and air bubble is defined as nominal value without real value. It exists only in name, as an idea. The more people hear about the buble and the more information about it is known, the bigger the bubble becomes. The strategies used to make the bubble grow can take many forms: spreading posters and flyers, talking to people about the project or presenting it on a webiste, giving lecures etc.

The creation of the bubble started in Sierre, a small town in Switzerland but in the meantime has spread to many other places. Most of the information about the bubble and some speculations about its size can be found here.

This can be Anything
2013, Genk, Belgium
During three months, the children of the 4th grade (9-10 years old) in primary school 'De Bladwijzer' received lessons about the 'unknown influence', this influence is something that causes things to be different than they were expected and makes it impossible to predict them. The weather forecast made the day before would be compared with the local weather measured by the children. The difference between the two indicated the amount of unknown influence present that day. These measurements were made twice a day for the duration of three months and were accompanied by workshops to reflect upon the subject.
(With the support of FLACC workplace for visual artists)

Water, Bread, a Long Distance Phone Call
2012, Borgerhout, Belgium
This work was presented during the exhibition 'New ways to work' in an old city house next to the Turnhoutse baan, a busy traffic road and multicultural shopping street which is the home of many immigrants. As the intent of the exhibition was to reach out to the local inhabitants, I worked together with three local merchants: a bakery, a nightshop and an internet/telephone shop. In the exhibition space I places a stack of A4 papers mentioning the title of the work and the adress of the shops. For a total value of € 345, each of these papers could be traded for water, bread or a long distance phone call. At the end of the exhibition, 147 papers were taken, only 6 of them exchanged for a loaf of bread. The remaining 141 are lost, in closets, garbage bins, drawers, piles of papers or other obscure places.