Bart Lodewijks

For the last four months, artist Bart Lodewijks has been making work in Genk. Using white blackboard chalk, he makes line drawings that meander through the city. Lodewijks previously worked in the Moscow district in Ghent, in Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro ­– and other large or smaller cities. He starts, without asking for permission, by drawing on the pavement and on walls and alleys. He tells suspicious local residents and passers-by that chalk can easily be removed or washed away by the rain. He gradually becomes a familiar face in the neighbourhood and after a while his drawings find their way to the facades of houses and ultimately into the interiors of private homes. Lodewijks writes short texts about things that occur during the drawing.

People sometimes ask: ‘Why lines?’ Lodewijks: ‘a line is the shortest connection between two points, similar to a footstep. On foot you can get almost anywhere. I try to get everywhere by drawing.'

Lodewijks writes short texts about the things that occur during the drawing.

The project in Genk can lead to tours of neighbourhoods or lectures – and will, in any case, leave behind an interesting document in the form of a newspaper, a book or a box that holds all the information on and of the project.