Mikes Poppe
(Antwerp, Belgium °1983)
Since 2007, while focusing on his academic research on “Performance Art”, Mikes Poppe quoted a number of live performances in the form of re-enactments (‘Archive-projects’). He specialized in meticulously reconstructing canonical/historical performances (from the 1960ies & 70ies), confronting them with so-called ‘Inspired-by projects’: i.e. semi-autonomous performances inspired by the historical antecedents, creating a personal interpretation/transformation of the original material. Poppe re-enacted work of Marina Abramovic, Danny Devos, Vito Acconci, Chris Burden just to name a few.
Nowadays he regularly presents autonomous art performances, drawings and installations. His visual artwork has strong performative elements and can be seen as complementary to his live art projects.
Poppe’s work focuses on questioning the relevance of art performance today: how does a young artist relate to today’s art world where (performance) art is often reduced to theatre or even entertainment… Poppe subscribes the necessity of the ephemeral character of performance art and its craftsmanship: his work is tailor-made for the occasion and location. The artist’s body —in dialogue with the art history— is his main tool and starting point.
Mikes Poppe —who describes and presents himself as an artist/terrorist—, tries to incarnate a kind of artistic trinity: the ‘homo historicus’, the ‘homo analyticus’ and the ‘homo spectaculator’.
These 3 simultaneous identities define and energise (1) his struggle with the (canonical) art history, (2) his desire to disclose and analyse the world (of art), and finally, (3) his need to make a constant appeal to the viewer/public/audience while offering elements of physical and mental transgression.
All this is Poppe’s personal attempt to reach out for the sublime within each of us.
