Gustave Demoen

Gustave Demoen is a visual artist, curator, musician, performer and initiator of the ‘Etna, Art & Research Center’. He lives and works mainly in Brussels, Belgium.
In his multidisciplinary art practice he is often guided by his environment, its coincidences and encounters that take place there:
in art school he played in an improvisation collective (a-e-i-o-u),on his bedroom window he organized an art space (TINA)& from his collection of Etna postcards he created a video installation (Fuoco).

EARC Rifugio 25FLOW, Catania & Rifugio Galvarina, Etna, Italie
30.10.2025 - ∞

Before the existence of photography a lot of etches have been made of the Etna during the uprising of the first encyclopedia’s. What is striking, is that many of those are not realistic but a rather naive representation of the volcano. These scientists (or artists) who drew them, often travelled far (the Netherlands, England, Germany…) to create an image to explain this amazing natural phenomenon and its gorgeous eruptions while many weren’t present at the moment of an eruption and had to build it up by their imagination and through stories.

Vernissage © Francisca Cardoso Lima

Etna Art & Research Center invited 22 contemporary artists to make an etch inspired by the Etna and all these images in dialogue with their own practices.
On Etna, there are 24 rifugi that are always accessible to all kinds of passers-by: hikers, cyclists, shepherds... Rifugio 25 is a new refuge for these 22 created etches and for any kind of visitor.

Exhibition views FLOW © Francisca Cardoso Lima

On October 30 Rifugio 25 opened in FLOW, an exhibition space in Catania.
The next day, the exhibition moved to Rifugio Galvarina. It is one of the 24 rifugi on the Etna. The 22 prints were donated to the space and are on permanent display there.

Rifugio Galvarina © Gustave Demoen
Rifugio 25 will be exhibited at Vroom Space Brussels in April. The exhibition will also be the book launch for the publication about this project: Sono tornate a casa oggi e ti ho trovate tutte in fiamme.

Participating artists: Alberto Mazzara, Anna Rubbens, Anna Van der Ploeg, Birde Vanheerswynghels, Daniel Fonatti, Elie Laucher, Elisa Raciti, Gustave Demoen, Krista De Mulder, Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn, Malgorzata Maria Olchowska, Marnix Everaert, Maya Strobbe, Nathan De Corte, Nerina Triolo, Nikolaas Demoen, Rachele Turrisi, Sam Zanardo, Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, Simon Verougstraete, Tom De Clippel, Vladimir Ivaneanu.

The exhibition was made possible with the support of Ibridi.

Etna Postcard Collection: A Typographical Study
Etch handprinted on paper, edition of 8
32 × 22.4 cm, 2025

After living at the foot of Mount Etna for four months in 2022 and returning whenever he has time, Gustave Demoen is very familiar with the volcano and the art scene in Catania. Yet he still feels like a tourist there, scouring all the tourist shops in search of new postcards of the Etna. This has resulted in a collection of more than 350 postcards.

For Rifugio 25, he created an image of this Etna postcard collection, from which he selected 24 different types of typography. Some are more grotesque, others more serene, just as Etna itself can be.

© Gustave Demoen
Etch made for ‘Rifugio 25’, an exhibtion at FLOW Catania & Rifugio Galvarina curated by Etna Art & Research Center.

Cinema Belvedere Kunst & Zwalm curated by Kunstenplatform Plan B
Klein Zwitserland, Munkzwalm
30.08-14.09.2025

© Leontien Allermeersch & een-twee
For Kunst & Zwalm, een-twee (Janes Zeghers & Gustave Demoen) builded an in-situ cinema, a sculpture somewhere between observation tower, resting place and tribune. They exhibited a landscape film to let you get lost in a summer cornfield. The popcorn served was spiced with flavors of the environment.

© Leontien Allermeersch & een-twee
Many thanks to Kunstenplatform Plan-B, Vincent Focquet, Leontien Allemeersch, Ewout Vermote, lau persijn, Benwa Meneers, Abel Provoost for the invitation and wonderful support, vzw boom for making this beautiful bienale take place and silent forces in the shadow: Marec Zeghers, Anthea Demoen, Lily, Frans and Sam.

Festival des ArbresJosaphatparc, Brussels
28.05.2025

During the Festival des Arbres, a one-day drawing festival organized by een-twee (Janes Zeghers and Gustave Demoen), some six hundred drawings were made by as many drawers.
A team of professional artists and illustrators was on hand to assist park visitors where needed. Using charcoal made from fallen twigs in the park, local residents and visitors made beautiful drawings of their favorite tree.

At the central point, all the drawings were collected into an ad hoc exhibition. A short festive performance concluded a magical day in Josaphat Park.

© Cato Van Rijckeghem
Participating artists: Aniss El Hamouri, McCloud, Maya Strobbe, Maïly Beyrens Xu, Annelien Snyers, Irmak Yurur, Jana Vasiljević, Yingda Dong, Mirra Markhaeva, Hamada M Elkept, Nikoloz Maisuradze, May Abnet.

Graphic design by Eva Moulaert aka Dear Reader.

Many thanks to Vroom Space, Globe Aroma, Monica Fierlafijn Annys, Pablo, Audrey De Buck, Martha Balthazar, Vincent, Seppe Dylan, Carmine Swerts, Lowie Vandenberghe, Kasper Demeulemeester, Nerina Triolo, Anthea Demoen en Eve Zeghers.

This festival was made possible with the support of Faire Culture 1030.

Building a table
Collective Performance, Openbare Werken: A day of Kinship, viernulvier, Ghent
Zarlarswing Boerderie, Zarlardinge
09.05.2025

On the occasion of A Day of Kinship, organized within the framework of Openbare Werken, een-twee (Janes Zeghers and Gustave Demoen) devised a construction kit. Participants were invited to roll up their sleeves and could lose themselves in a large visual collective puzzle.
The work resulted in trestles, tabletops and finally in a long table at which afternoon meals could be enjoyed by those present.

The trestles and table tops were donated afterwards to the farm, Zarlarswing Boederie, where the event took place.

Cyriel Documentary, 39’07”
December 2024

In 2015, Cyriel ended his own life. The young musician and composer from Ghent, Belgium, had only just begun a new course of study in Amsterdam. For his parents, Krista and Tom, it is only now, several years later, that the immense grief is truly beginning to sink in, with overwhelming consequences. At the same time, their vegetable patch has never been so full of life.

Filmmaker Gustave Demoen, the best friend Cyriel left behind, spends a year closely following his parents in the idyllic setting of their rural home, acting as both confidant and observer.
As the seasons pass, we come to know Krista and Tom, who, full of love for their son and for each other, find ways to ease the weight of daily life through small, everyday rituals.

Spoken in Dutch
Subtitled in English

18.06.2025 National premiere at Zinnema, Brussels, BE
06.10.2025 International and French premiere at
Un Festival C’est Trop Court 2025, Nice, FR

Graphic design © Katrien Daemers

Excerpt “Cyriel”, 39’07”

Filmstills “Cyriel”, © Gustave Demoen

a film by

Gustave Demoen

featuring

Krista De Mulder & Tom De Clippel

colourist

Mon Dewulf

sound mix

Anton Lambert

music

'Perpetuum Mobile' by Accidental Tourists

subtitles

Jonathan Beaton

typography

Katrien Daemers

special thanks

Martí Madaula Esquirol, Joy Maurits, Aulona Fetahaj, Ninon Lacroix, Janes Zeghers, Ewoud Vermote, Erik Lamens / Erik Nerinckx & the Academy of Fine Arts Anderlecht, Katrien Dierickx, Peter Vandenberghe, Cato Van Rijckeghem, Ruben Pauwels, Carmine De Swerts, Lowie Vandenberghe, Katrien Daemers, Anthea, Palatine & Nikolaas Demoen.

This film was shot in Brakel, Belgium.
In memoriam, Cyriel De Clippel, 1995–2015

Ateliers participatifs de l’Enjoliveur
Atelier de l’Enjoliveur - Quartier Gaucheret Schaerbeek, Brussels
06.10.2024 - 19.12.2024

In January 2024, artist and teacher Roel Kerkhofs moved into his new studio in the gaucheret neighborhood of Schaerbeek, Brussels. As part of his doctorate: the fight against loneliness, trying to reveal mystic truths (quote Martin Creed) and out of love for collective creation, he invited a group of former students to become part of the Atelier de l’Enjoliveur.

In the future, the studio wants to become a place for experimentation and exhibitions but before inviting outside people, it wants to get to know its neighbors. Driven by curiosity and the search for beauty in the everyday life, Roel Kerkhofs and Gustave Demoen together built a cart with which they want to get to know the relatively small neighborhood of about 10 streets.

The cart symbolizes the floor of the studio, which was not accidentally painted in the same dark red. Over a period of two months, they drive out the floor three times for four days in search of a parking spot where they can stop temporarily. Once parked, the cart and all the art work materials it carries becomes an object of dialogue. In doing so the passersby are invited to make their own contribution to the project or cart that often changes its function: a table, a stage, a musical instrument, a canvas, a kitchen....

Before the studio became a home for artists, it was a car garage. The name enjoliveur refers to a hubcap in French or literally translated a beautifier. In Ateliers participatifs de l’Enjoliveurs, Roel and Gustave share their own and go in search of the neighbors their enjoliveurs de la vie.

Double You Double YouBizet Bizar, Brussels
05 - 07.07.2024

What if a saxophonist sits on a 20-meter swing? What if a skateramp becomes an instrument? How does it feel to collectively read a short story accompanied by a live soundtrack?

Spread over three days, Werkplaats Walter organized a series of twelve musical experiments. Each time, musicians were asked to improvise to an everyday event of a park. These events were performed by neighborhood initiatives: Emancipower Boxing Club, MUS-E in collaboration with Cultureghem, Tai Chi Equilibre en Mouvement, Museums of Belgium with their kites etc.

Curated by een-twee (Janes Zeghers & Gustave Demoen) as part of their residency in Werkplaats Walter.

© Monica Annys Fierlafijn
Participating artists: Roxane Metayer, MUS-E Belgium, Sarah Lauwers, Orphan Fairytale, Museums of Belgium, a-e-i-o-u, Shoko Igarashi, Anouk Neyens, Les Gastrosophes, Teun Verbruggen, Tsubasa Hori, Robbe Broeckx, Emancipower, Lynn Cassiers, FUZZY Quintet, Victor Van Wassenhove, Anton Lambert, BX’elles, Gilles Vandecaveye-Pinoy, Maya Dhondt, Andrew Claes, Come On Feet (jam), The Sonic Weather Station, Florence Cats, Clara Lévy, Taichie Equilibre en Mouvement, Watcharita Aroon, Fester Vogels & Lila Maria de Coninck, Haring Books and een-twee.

Many thanks to the golden audioduo: Oscar Claus and Rodion Gholobov.

This festival was made possible with the support of Werkplaats Walter, Urban Brussels, 1070 Cultuur, Vlaanderen Verbeelding Werkt and VGC Brussel.

Tien euro voor een bord*de Koer, Ghent
25.05.2024

Brussels artist duo een-twee invited as many visual as performance artists for an evening of food, art, performance, concerts, drinks and dancing. All actions were gathered around a large yellow table they built with the help of a group of neighborhood volunteers. This table cleaved throught all the six different spaces of de Koer, bringing together a sculpture and a performance in each space.

A series of plates were made especially for this evening. When the delicious meal was finished, you could see a drawing appear. These were drawn by the local art school. The evening’s lineup was shown on the back of the plate. As a dessert, each visitor could take home a plate as a souvenir at the end of the night.

© Faber Mahieu
Participating artists: Linus Vandewolken, Olga Dhaene & Maikel De Greve, Radio Hito, Clara Spilliaert, Hot Bodies, Mathias Prenen, Mamore, DJ Loessy, Betül Sefika and een-twee.

Many thanks to the students of Sint-Lucas Kunsthumanoira for drawing on the plates, the cooking team of the Koer for the amazing meal and last but not least the fabulous building team of de Koer who made it possible to build the scenography: Kalli, Laure, Benwa, Dany, Mathias, Erfan, Lorenzo & Marec.

This evening was made possible with the support of de Koer, the City of Ghent and Culture Ghent.