STARLIGHT SHINE on showcase in Como, Italy
The textile installation STARLIGHT SHINE, launched during the WONDER Creativity Festival by Victor Verhelst in collaboration with the 6 Belgian textile production companies B&T Textilia, Green Street Fabrics, Belo Velvets, Van Neder, Tessutica, Aarova and organised by Fedustria and Designregio Kortrijk, is currently exhibited at the Pinacoteca Civica museum in Como.
STARLIGHT SHINE at the Patria, Grote Markt Kortrijk at the WONDER Creativity Festival 17 October - 3 November.
Startlight Shine
Fedustria and Designregion Kortrijk are working together to stimulate the Belgian textile industry in innovation, creativity and internationalisation, with federal support from Foreign Affairs. We made the link with Como, given that Kortrijk and Como are both UNESCO Creative Cities; Kortrijk is recognised for the Design domain, Como for the Crafts & Folkt Arts domain.
The textile pavilion STARLIGHT SHINE - launched at WONDER 2024 - integrated all the characteristics inherent in Verhelst's work. From its digital canvas, the installation invited spectators to experience a physical, immersive journey unfolding the ‘process of a car wash’ through the lens of the ‘TRIPPY VEGAS’ universe.
As you moved through the installation, you were surrounded by intricately crafted tapestries, each produced in collaboration with leading Belgian textile manufacturing companies, using residual yarn from their production. The walls, floors and various elements were not just surfaces, but narrative layers, each representing a different stage of the transformation process - from the initial ‘cleaning’ to the final ‘polishing’.
With ‘STARLIGHT SHINE’, the juxtaposition of digital elements and tactual craftsmanship challenged you to see both technology and tradition in a new light.
Practical
Pinacoteca civica di Como
The exhibition can be visited from 23.11.24 - 12.01.25
Via Diaz 84 - Como
Victor Verhelst
Victor Verhelst (born 1997, BE) is a visual artist.
Rooted in the graphic arts and the craft of textile art, Victor Verhelst's oeuvre weaves a variety of media into his autonomous creations. His artistic journey flows seamlessly from the digital realm to the tangible in the physical world, manifesting in unique Riso prints, voluminous tapestries and interactive gaming technology. At the heart of his work is the ongoing series ‘TRIPPY VEGAS’, a vibrant, evolving digital cityscape where virtual architecture, human interactions and imaginative structures merge into a new, surrealist fiction.
Verhelst's aesthetic is a dance of distortion and juxtaposition, where 2D and 3D images collide and merge, creating striking figurative compositions. Print - whether digital, 3D, Riso or textile - explores the delicate relationship between materiality and the pre-existing digital image, bringing the digital image to life and giving it a tangible, multidimensional presence.
An organisation of
Victor Verhelst, Designregio Kortrijk, Fedustria, B&T Textilia, Green Street Fabrics, Belo Velvets, Van Neder, Tessutica, Aarova, Alain Verhelst, PLUS-ONE Gallery, A.P./Studio
