As part of our commitment to fresh ideas and interdisciplinary dialogue, the GreenDeal-NET conference also brings together artists whose works inspire reflection and spark conversation. Their pieces complement our discussions on climate and sustainability by inviting new ways of seeing and feeling the challenges we face.
Below you can explore the artists and the works they are sharing with us during the conference.
This exhibition was made possible with the support of PARCE, a Ghent-based collaborative artist initiative, supported the organization of this exhibition as part of the conference program. They foster community and support artists through shared projects, open studios, and events focused on collaboration and connection
Artists and their art
Camilo Bojacá reflects on the wounds inflicted by violence—on bodies, landscapes, and collective memory. Through the metaphor of the "body-landscape," he draws a powerful parallel between the domination of nature and the exploitation of the feminine form. Echoing Colombia’s violent history, the work transforms trauma into poetic matter, confronting viewers with the fragile beauty of a violated world. Bojacá’s sculptural language is both intimate and political, evoking the urgent need to reclaim empathy in the face of destruction.
WOUNDED DEITY (2022)
Wounded Deity depicts an indigenous deity symbolizing Mother Earth. The figure’s pregnant belly reveals a mine carved within, whilst lying on charcoal, representing the exploitation of nature by humanity. Through this powerful imagery, the work speaks to the deep wounds inflicted on the planet and its sacred origins by relentless human extraction and environmental disregard. NB: this work is ideally displayed on a pedestal, which we could bring.
PAISAJE MUJER (2024)
Paisaje Mujer portrays Mother Earth transformed into a polluting factory, highlighting the stark contrast between nature's nurturing essence and the destructive impact of industrialization. The work challenges viewers to reflect on the environmental consequences of human activity. The work is made on paper that is used to measure humidity levels.
Kindi Llajtu Álvarez Jacanamijoy is an indigenous Colombian artist from the Inga people of Putumayo. His name—Kindi, meaning feathers of the hummingbird—evokes the delicate energy that flows through his work. His paintings are not simply representations of nature; they are visual translations of Indigenous spiritual practices that understand nature as family and life as a continuous dialogue with rivers, wind, light, and movement. Layer upon layer, Kindi builds each canvas—painting over previous images until the final composition emerges—mirroring the cycles and depth of ancestral memory. His work offers a living expression of the interconnectedness between spirit, land, and identity, resisting fragmentation in a world shaped by displacement and globalization
DE JUEGO EN JUEGO (2022)
JUGAMAS EN LA BRISA (2022)
O Moth is an interdisciplinary artist exploring how perception, identity, and meaning shape our sense of reality. Focusing on details—like ruins, dead animals, and urban barriers—O Moth examines the tension between human constructs and the autonomy of matter, inviting a poetic, critical view of the fragile nature of what we call reality.
3 RANITAS AND PHYLLOBATES (2019)
These works are part of the project Hubo una vez…, which challenges the assumed superiority of humans. Through detailed portrayals of frogs, including endangerment levels —especially the endangered and highly poisonous Phyllobates terribilis, native to Colombia’s Pacific coast—O Moth draws attention to their ecological importance, vulnerability, and the threats they face from human activity. The pieces highlight the paradox of human actions that endanger both the environment and ourselves, emphasizing our shared fragility and the urgent need to acknowledge the interconnectedness of all species.
Marci Lorena Bayona, visual artist and photographer, explores motherhood, migration, memory, and our emotional ties to nature through analogue photography, mixed media, and personal narratives.
SOS (2025)
S.O.S." was born from a profound sense of urgency, an intense awareness of nature's silent murmurs. In its own imperceptible language, the natural world is sending out a cry for help. Inspired by how trees communicate with each other not through words, but through their roots, via the underground fungal network, this piece aims to translate that natural exchange into a universal cry, one that we humans can understand. The forest, seemingly peaceful, is actually a living tapestry where every tree feels and reacts to the suffering of its neighbours. This project is my interpretation of that underlying message of ecological solidarity. "S.O.S." isn't just a simple plea for help; it's an alert, even an accusation, an undeniable observation of our complicity in the planet's suffering. Each viewer is invited to interpret this cry according to their own conscience. Is it a warning? A reminder that we are on the brink of an abyss, balancing between HELP and HELL? My hope is that, when confronted with this imposing and stark image, viewers will feel the urgency to respond to nature's cry, a cry that not only comes from outside but also resonates within each of us. Because we are all connected, like trees, in an invisible network of causes and consequences. My project is a call to remember this interconnection and to act before it's too late.
Lou-Anne Usewils (2007) is a young Belgian artist living in the Ath region. She develops work that is exclusively centred on the motif of birds, through which she explores our relationships with non-humans. Her works do not follow a scientific or naturalistic approach but rather offer a poetic reading of the living world: birds become allegorical figures, carriers of emotions, symbols, and stories. Her painting practice is slow and meticulous, rooted in an applied realism pushed to the point of obsession, where every element is placed with care and a deep attention to material and meaning.
She is currently a first-year painting student at ArBA-Esa.
I present here two works created this year: a line drawing over a photograph and an oil painting on wood. These pieces resonate strongly with the themes discussed during the conference and, I believe, could have a powerful impact as posters.
My work focuses on the non-human, a crucial topic at the heart of current debates, particularly for European organisations committed to environmental causes. These two works reflect that focus: one transforms a church steeple by integrating an owl’s ear, creating a metaphor for listening to the living world; the other offers an image subtly hidden behind a mesh, suggesting how increasingly difficult it is to perceive or access nature.
In the face of species extinction, the degradation of ecosystems, and the destructive effects of practices such as industrial fishing, I believe it is urgent to give visibility and voice to what so often escapes our gaze: the non-human perspective
BELL TOWER-EAR (2025)
Liner drawing on a photograph
An owl’s ear, subtly embedded into the architecture of a steeple, shifts the symbol’s meaning: no longer merely announcing time, the tower becomes a call to attentively listen to the living world attentively.
GRID (2025)
Oil on wood
Behind a fine mesh evoking a wire fence, a form emerges without fully revealing itself. This painting suggests the increasing inaccessibility of the natural world, confined, obscured, yet still present, like a fading memory.
Eve Vilain is originally from France and has been living in Brussels for almost ten years. Before she started painting, she was a dancer. After completing her studies at the Conservatoire de Tours and then a training programme in Bordeaux, she moved to Belgium. There, she took part in many workshops with choreographers and dance companies. At the same time, she co-founded her own collective with a friend and worked with various small dance improvisation companies.
In 2018, she began working on a solo performance that never came to life because the research and creative process gradually led her towards painting. A shift took place, and little by little, she moved away from dance.
Drawn deeply into the medium of painting, she enrolled at ArBA-EsA, where she has now been studying for four years.
UNTITLED (2025)
The image on this poster is of a painting she created this year. Since she began painting, she has been interested in the relationship between painting and puddles. By puddle, she means the water found in wetlands or the rocky hollows where water remains trapped when the sea recedes.
In De Pictura, a treatise on painting from the Renaissance period, Alberti refers to the myth of Narcissus to discuss perspective, particularly the right distance needed for the image to appear clearly without becoming blurred.
For her, it is not about fully grasping the surface of either the water or the paint, but rather about drawing on what both reveal: on the one hand, the activity of life in fragile environments, and on the other, the traces that we leave behind.