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©Flor Maesen
BARЯA Movement
Composed by different people in different moments, we shape moments of connection and dialogue, research the unseen and host workshops and events. We use the term regenerative art, focusing on processes of creation that restore and revitalise.
We currently have no coordinator or structure.
For all inquiries: barra.the.movement@gmail.com
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co-creators of past BARЯA-projects
Flor Veronica Maesen he/him
general coordinator
a visual artist, photographer, coordinator, semi-performer, shaman-apprentice, teacher and gardening-lover.
Much of his work sprouts from a fascination for the (human) (body) (in) (or) (as) (landscape) and the mystical and existential experience.
Within BARRA he has been part of the foundation since the first project until today. He switches roles between supporting, coordinating, inventing, photographing, developing workshops… Anything goes as long has his inner fire remains high.
Recently he has founded the initiative ‘An Institute of Dreams’ to connect the developments in the field of consciousness to the arts.
Karolien Polenus ‘NiXiE’ ‘Energy8Medicine’ she/her
is a multifaceted artist, blending her talents as a performer, singer, sound healer, DJ, and curator. Her work seamlessly merges creative expression, spirituality, and science.
As a visionary sound alchemist, she delves into the realms of frequencies and vibrations to harness their transformative power. Within BARRA, Karolien is a driving creative force, having created and led projects such as Nex(us) Lab(oratory), Whisperings of the Taxus trees, Lucid Dance Lab, while also leading her own initiatives. Furthermore, she is a creative partner of an Institute of Dreams and has co created last year’s Third Paradise ritual and the following ‘Caro Cervo’ Opera at Fondazione Pistoletto.
Hugo De Westelinck ‘Humn’. he/him
Humn is a self-taught musician based in Brussels, known for his spiritually infused and introspective soundscapes. He released his debut album, The Second Attention, in 2019, followed by The Third Lodge. His 2021 album, Opening The Gate, gained attention through live performances, including at Queer Homographia, Atelier 210, DeSingel in Antwerp, and Karmen Camina in Strasbourg. In 2023, he released Piano Songs Two: Portraits and began collaborating with 3D artist Laurie-Anne Jaubert in the duo Cenote. Humn, a resident DJ on Lyl Radio, released Beyond music, he teaches mindfulness meditation and Pilates, has practiced shamanic medicine for six years, and is becoming a priest of the Great Mother. He is also developing research on the sources of Brussels from mystical, scientific, and artistic perspectives.
Marta Malsegna ‘pluriverse’ they/them
is based in Rome & works in the in-between of art and design, with attention to the interrelations of social and spiritual dimensions. They combine social design methods and community-based practices, seeking to understand ways of being together in times of ecological disruption.
After being appointed as guide for the BARRA group during their stay at Cittadellarte, and ultimately becoming part of the performance, she has became part of the Movement. Since then she has hosted a research week in Rome, Italy for ‘An Institute of Dreams’ and has stayed in close contact to set up new adventures.
Ineke Vera De Soete
‘Ivee Sweet’. she/her
is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist, spaceholder and dreamengineer based between Brussels and Morocco. Drawing inspiration from dreams, mysticism, sacred geometry, and ancient art forms, her work explores the intricate connections between the visible and unseen worlds.
Sweet virtuosically intertwines various fine art disciplines and mediums to create immersive, multilayered, mixed-media artworks, each charged with a unique vibration designed to recalibrate the viewer’s state of being. Her work acts as both a medium and a message, inviting and encouraging introspection, energetic realignment, and a reconnection with one’s essence — pure love made real.
Lennert de Lathauwer he/him
is a photographer, model & assistant-arborist.
Within BARRA he is co-authoring ‘An Institute of Dreams’ since the beginning. He has been through an intense therapeutic process, involving deep subconscious work, which he now transforms into knowledge and practice.
He is currently developing a clothing label, to fuse his photographic work into a pragmatic form, and to shape a new visual identity for BARRA Movement.
Els Dietvorst is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Southeast Ireland for 12 years. Dialogue, experiment, and intuition are recurring strategies in her work. She investigates the human condition, which in her oeuvre results in themes such as life and death, fear, alienation, and desire.
Asia Nyembo Mireille, born in 1984 in R.D.Congo, is an artist who lives and works in Belgium currently. Art being for her the deep expression of her spirit, she allows herself to be led by it by integrating her personal and ancestral history, scientific and artistic research.
Sadrie Alves grew up in Brasília and now lives in Antwerp, working between art, design and orality.
She has participated in, co-coordinated & designed for the whole BARRA cycle of 22-23 and is now following the new evolutions from a distance, focusing mainly on developing her individual practice and other collaborations.
The core of her artistic practice departs from orality as a catalyst for tender narratives and collaboration. She sees drawing as writing as singing as crafting. Her work is informed by oral stories, and the beings that inhabit them. She is currently working on various collaborative projects that share in common an urgency and focus on multiplicity, undermined visual languages, so-called unreliable knowledges and intersectional theory.
Alex Akuete is a multidisciplinary artist based in Antwerp. He paints on garments and anything that feels like a surface. He builds installations for theater performances. He is also a dancer/choreographer and he creates choreographies for theater houses in Belgium.
Mira Verstraeten, based in Brussels, Belgium, is a visual artist and performer. She embraces the photographic eye with a subjective perspective, in (re)search for connectivity and embodied tactility.
In the project ‘Rite of Cuddle’ she is one of two from ‘mira&tchi, where they gradually develop a series of works built on their friendship and each turn of the season.
Yi Zhang studied painting in Guangzhou. In 2016, an Erasmus exchange brought her to Antwerp for six months. In 2019 she returned to Belgium to continue her practice in visual art. Her current works are about love and sharing love.
Stef/Tif Assandri is a transdisciplinary artist that hybridizes visual arts, performance making and artistic research. She is also engaged in costumes and scenography creation with a special focus on collective processes.
Laurence Petrone is a student in sculpture. That is, thinking in images and manifesting these images through the sensory aspect of things. That and how the texture and physical invasiveness of what is can make one speak. What is enclosed expands. Laurence was one of the founders for the BARRA Movement.
Honey Zinsz is researcher of everything: creations, connections and communication through visual arts, merging paintings and sounds called CONVERSIONS.
Aurelie Di Marino (°1986) studeerde in 2009 af aan de KU Leuven als literatuurwetenschapper en in 2013 aan de theaterregieafdeling van Ritcs School of Arts. Ze werkte in het verleden reeds samen met o.a. De Warme Winkel, Milo Rau, Manu Riche,… Van 2014 tot op heden werkt Aurelie met K.A.K. (Koekelbergse Alliantie van Knutselaars) aan artistieke bezettingen van leegstand en publieke of semipublieke ruimtes.
In haar State of the Youth op het TheaterFestival in 2016 hield Aurelie een pleidooi voor uitdagende samenwerkingen, mythes onttrekken aan het dagelijks leven en hun verhouding t.o.v. het verleden, de traditie, de geschiedenis inzichtelijk te maken, het populaire karakter van de ‘levende kunsten’…
BARЯA/MOVEMENT 