Kubilay Akman: Your work has
got a mystical and poetic effectiveness. How do you achive it?
Jan
Van Mechelen: If my work has got a mystical and poetic
element, this may be the result of an effort to make the images
as exact and as true to themselves as possible. One has to dance
oneself out of the picture in order to let the picture exist.
The traces of that dance are the lines and colours of the image.
Sufism, Hassidism, Taoism all taste as mystic as bread and tea.
KA: Why always human bodies
and faces?
JVM: The human body and face
are our most intimate landscapes, everything is there: trees,
clouds, rocks, rain and heat, all seasons travel in and over a
face. Human history cristalizes every second in the eyes of the
one before you.
KA: Budha images have got a
special meaning for you. Can you explain us a little your interest
to Budha or Budhism?
JVM: The form of the Buddha-face,
his serenity and awareness of the inner-outer world, the freedom
allowed to oneself and to others , these areall elements that
speak to me.
KA: You use complicated/several
techniques and materials together. How did you improve the special
artistic expressin way or language?
JVM: One has to invent the language
one speaks by speaking it. I am not aware of using a clear-cut
technique. Often I follow my hands, through years of daily practice
they have learned what to do and what to avoid. This is a life-long
voyage into always new territory.
KA: I suppose your art feed
by literature. Who are your favorites as authors or poets?
JVM: Literature can be very
exciting, it moves my mind and my painter's hand. Shakespeare,
Proust, Rimbaud, Joyce, Chuang Tzu, Tu Fu, Montaigne, Villon...
KA: As geographic location youre
at the heart of Europe. However Belgium is not among the main
art centres of the World. I mean there are some extraordinary
painters like you in your country. But London, Paris or New York
continue being the art centres of the world. What is your opinion
on this matter?
JVM: Belgium is a center of
energy to me. All books, music and a sense of history can be found
in the library around the corner. The latest computer technology
is available everywhere. As for London, Paris and N.Y.,these are
useful business centers, close by and easily available. They have
beautiful museums and exhibitions to offer.
KA: What do you think about
the work of Felicien Rops?
JVM: There is a Rops-retrospective
in Brussels for the moment. I haven't seen it but am aware of
his art.
KA: As we talked before you
like Istanbul, and your expressions on our city was very poetic.
Would you like to visit Istanbul by an exhibition? Have you got
a plan for Turkey?
JVM: It would be a pleasure
to come to Istanbul with an exhibition. I have no concrete plans
for Turkey, but if someone would offer me a possibility, I would
gladly consider it.
KA: Again, Belgium. I suppose
the multicultural character of your country (Dutch, French, German
and foreign immigrant cultures) is a chance for the arts and intellectual
life of Belgium? Do you agree with me?
SIMG0361
JVM: The whole world moves around
freely here, one can absorb and use many different ways of behaviour
and at the same time stay close to ones roots. This may be a strength.
KA: What are your new projects
and exhibitions?
JVM: The next exhibition will
be in Switzerland. For the moment I'm working on some small faces,
oil on panel, very dense. I want them to attract the eye in a
fatal way, a one way ticket way, like a black hole in the universe,
an invisible center of gravity that bends and sucks up the light.
Jan
Van Mechelen: If my work has got a mystical and poetic
element, this may be the result of an effort to make the images
as exact and as true to themselves as possible. One has to dance
oneself out of the picture in order to let the picture exist.
The traces of that dance are the lines and colours of the image.
Sufism, Hassidism, Taoism all taste as mystic as bread and tea.
