Aard 2014 - Now
Aard means Earth; but also nature as in the nature of things. This name reflects Dirk's strong connection to the earth but also talks about the fatality and beauty of life. At the other site of Aard, there is Zund, a tall Master of Ceremony, the Conscience, the Connection with the World. Zund - meaning pity or rue - just observes and comments, but hardly ever interacts. He is the Watcher in the Tower, waiting hour by hour.
In 2014 - with Drift and Être in his backpack - Dirk applies for another participation Brussels 'KunstenfestivalDesArts but to no avail. Disappointed but also angry the company decides to organise their own festival: 'KunstenFestivalDesAards'. During 3 weeks, the Rue Antoine DansaertStraat in Brussels becomes the playing field for Aard, who is the curator of the event. Shops, bars, restaurants and other venues are willing to open their doors for impromptu events. Photographers, musicians, actors and other artists presented their work based on Aard and created for the occasion. There is even a KunstenFestivalDesAards popup shop, where you can buy jewelry, T-shirts, objects and even posters and orignal coloring books and balloons. The festival and everything in it was dedicated to Tobius Kersenmacher, an ex-collegue of Zund. He was choosen just for the absurdity of it: just pick a random person and dedicate an event, a book, a painting or whatever to him/her. Put them on a pedestal for a day.
Aard rolls through the streets, rolls into a shop or a bar, gets ready, and does his performance in front of an astonished unexpected audience. When done, he leaves the way he entered: rolling out of the door heading for the next thing. It's a thrilling period, and the response is great; wIth a very limited budget more then 14 artists manage to present their work during3 weeks in one of the most popular neighbourhoods in Brussels. A guerilla festival, street art avant-la -lettre.
2015 was the year of expositions with Penser in the Botanique in Nay and the installation Post Mortem in collaboratio with johan Jacobs in Ghent. In March 2016 Aard presented Penser Fou, a performance and a book: everything for me, Bastards in Bang! Brussels.
Dirk then sidesteps to play Jefke in the tv-show Beau Sejour and was a guest actor in Clinch by Herwig Ilegems, with whom he curated the opening of the Academie in Turnhout, and where he realised I am Awake, a large silhouet of Zund, which now decorates one of the buildings of the Academy.
In 2017 Aard opens Axel Vervoordt's gallery with the performance Instant Kiss, a duet with his spouse on stage Lieve Meeussen. Then Dirk starts working on the BigBagWhale: a life-size humpback whale made out of large BigBags that were used to transport construction materials like sand or gravel. He sew the 18m long whale by hand and made over a hundred little backpacks and whales from the same material. These we carried around by inhabitans of the St-Josse community while the BigBagWhale was used as a winter cabin for cultural activities for the inhabitants. The next year he repeated the project but then he build a Yurt on stilts on a green strip between 2 roads in the center of Brusssels.