Caroline Coolen

For the Belgian sculptor Caroline Coolen (°1975, Bree, Belgium), the use of collage, montage, assemblage and free association is a way to get a grip on reality. She summarizes the multitude of impressions from reality in her images. Her relationship with nature, landscape and animals is characteristic. She wants to compress that outside world – or Umwelt as Coolen calls it – as one total impression. Often starting from sculpting, a conglomerate is created with extremely diverse materials. With this far-reaching integration she connects space with time in which people and animals or plants are placed. Caroline Coolen’s work plays on a broad spectrum of our sensory experience; with varied textures and various materials she binds the visual to the tactile. This produces sculptures and large-format drawings that are often presented as a complete installation.