His journey? A plunge from the realms of large-scale drawings into the tactile embrace of textile. This isn't just a shift in medium; it's a manifesto, a defiant stride into the uncharted.

Congratulations on being awarded the Lyonel Kunstpreis. The jury mentioned your art offers "an immense interest in the familiar in the seemingly new." How do you interpret this? And how does the cyclical nature of old appearing in new forms manifest in your work?
Thank you! I think when creating an artwork, it’s a lot about the fusion of different existing things, into something new. References can be obvious, and used as a sort of quote, but sometimes it’s nice to keep it subtle and try to create a sense of familiarity that cannot be deciphered immediately. The balance between the known and the unknown, between the readable and the unreadable is something I encounter a lot when making art. It's about trying to carve out vagueness as clearly as possible - if that makes any sense.

The jury also highlighted the role of the human body in your work, both as a site of manipulation and a medium for self-expression. Can you elaborate on how you navigate this dichotomy and what inspired you to approach the body in such a unique manner?
This makes me think of one of my first projects in art school, where I designed furniture for specific body positions, that were all based on having really bad posture. My idea was to use the posture as a metaphor for the mental state of a person and manifest that in an entire interior setting. I always found it weird to have a body, that physically exists in space, and I am trying to make sense out of it by using its presence and its absence as means for my art. The first approach with the furniture has evolved with time but the core idea is still inherent in my work today.
In my graduation show at the Royal Academy, for example, all pieces originally scaled to a body (my body) were shown abandoned and inanimate, evoking a feeling of absence and emptiness. They were still tracing bodily presence and interaction, but also raised questions about their potential autonomous existence.

In the "Intrawelten" exhibition, you showcased various intriguing pieces from your diploma exhibition "BYE!", including the graphite drawing with the Nelly Furtado lyric quote and other items such as the Styrodur shoes. Could you elaborate on the central theme connecting these artworks and your choice of objects, especially the quote from Nelly Furtado?
In my exhibition “BYE!” I combined different types of works, such as drawings, textile works and styrofoam shoes to create a stage-like setting. The central theme of the exhibition was an imaginary performance, for which I chose “All Good Things” by Nelly Furtado as the underlying soundtrack. I reawakened my love for this song, while I went through a phase of listening to 2000s pop songs as a sort of therapeutic time travel at the time of making the exhibition.
It’s a gloomy and melancholic song but at the same time it’s very hooky – which is a duality that I resonate with a lot. For the exhibition I took out the central line “Why do all good things come to an end?” and placed it as the only colour element onto a large-scale graphite drawing. I like to think about it as a timeless and universal question. Maybe one of the central questions of human existence. It’s a bit deep but not that deep after all.

With your recognition and the support from institutions, what future projects or explorations are you most excited about? And how do you envision the next phase of your artistic journey?
It’s a very busy time ahead, which I am looking forward to. Together with Colombian artist Eduardo José Rubio Parra, I will co-create the second issue of the experimental publication project THE CHOPPED OFF HEAD MAGAZINE featuring new textile works of mine, and I plan on hosting a series of events in my studio here in Antwerp. I also started a new series of drawings, and besides began to collaborate with young fashion designers on my further exploration of textile and garment, which turns out to be a very fruitful conversation.