GENT.- Through her solo exhibition Vermin artist Isabelle Andriessen aims to address the violent rites and dehumanization that preceded the Beeldenstorm of 1566, a period marked by poverty, religious conflict and uprisings against heretics in The Low Countries (currently Belgium and the Netherlands.) Her mechanical, moving sculptures, developed for Kunsthal Gent, confront the viewer with violence and subjugation. Next to these new sculptures, presented in the Old House, Andriessen also installs the work Ivory Dampers (2019) in the garden near the Old House, as an addition to the Endless Exhibition.
During the 16th century in reformed France and the Low Countries, people with different beliefs were called heretics, and even vermin. ‘Vermin’ derives from the Latin vermis (worm) and was originally used for worm-like larvae of certain insects that would spread diseases, many of which infest foodstuffs. The mobs that took part were not just acting out of anger or chaos; they were performing a ritualistic act of religious purification. By using terms such as “vermin” or “plagues,” the catholic church developed a narrative in which heretics were seen as dangerous, undesirable elements that had to be eradicated. This rhetoric contributed to the justification of harsh measures such as excommunication, imprisonment, torture and execution, to control and ‘cleanse’ or ‘purify’ the community.
An important anchor for Andriessen’s exhibition is ‘The Rites of Violence’, an essay by Natalie Zemon Davis, that examines how acts of violence have been framed as sacred or ritualistic under certain periods, such as during religious wars, inquisitions, or the use of terror by religious authorities in order to instill fear and obedience. The political assassinations, which were often carried out in highly ritualized ways, display how public executions were not just acts of violence, but also of symbolic meaning. Through this exhibition Andriessen makes a reference to the way how these ritual acts were used as a tool to increase power, legitimacy, and authority, while also considering how political and social contexts shaped people’s understanding of violence and justice.
A notorious instrument of terror deriving from the Spanish Inquisition during this time was the Council of Blood (or “Bloedraad”), which was a court set up to investigate and punish those suspected of rebellion or heresy. Mass executions were common, and those found guilty were often beheaded, burned alive, or hanged in public squares during religious rites or celebrations as a warning to others. The executions were brutal and public, using fear and spectacle to deter further rebellion and dissent. Doing so the ritualization of violence became a form of collective action, often with clear social or religious purposes.
For Vermin Andriessen dedicated her investigation to medieval armour and Western European torture techniques used to carry out oppression, destruction and mutilation. She not only addresses the periodic geopolitical tensions, but also how they give way to resilience and community mobilisation. The works can be seen as activist entities that together perform an unpredictable and uncanny choreography. The viewer becomes the eyewitness to a rite that increasingly affects the space over the duration of the exhibition. These new sculptures form a landscape of armoured carcasses acting out their own agency, making tangible the growing darkness residing in current socio-politics.
Through analyzing this historical event and linking it up to the present Andriessen sculptures speculate a grim future scenario in which armoured carcasses are acting out their own agency, making tangible the growing darkness.
Isabelle Andriessen investigates ways to physically animate inanimate synthetic materials in order to provide them with their own metabolism, behavior and agency — doing so her sculptures perform over the course of one and several exhibitions, seemingly beyond control. Like a window into science-fictional other worlds her works are governed by material entities that appear to be passive or dormant, yet their output reveals a darker agenda.
She was artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (NL) (2017- 2019) and participant in the Arts & Science Honours Program of the KNAW Royal Dutch Academy of Science and Academy of Arts (2016). Andriessen has presented solo exhibitions at institutions including De Pont Museum, Tilburg (NL) and CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel (CH) (both 2021). Group exhibitions include MO.CO. Montpelier (FR) (2025); Moderna Museet, Malmö (SE) (2023); FRONT International, Cleveland (OH) (USA) (2022); GAMeC, Bergamot (IT); Modern Museum of Art, Warsaw (PL) (both 2020); 15th Lyon Biennial, Lyon (FR) (2019); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (FR) (both 2018). Upcoming sole exhibitions include Kunsthal Gent (BE) (2025) and Konsthal Trondheim (NO) (2026).
Her work has been featured in FlashArt, Kunstforum International, Art in America, Art Forum, Frieze, CURA Magazine and MOUSSE, amongst others.
