Premio Combat Prize

Metakosmia, paintings in space and time’One cannot say I create beauty; beauty is an experience that cannot be imposed upon someone else, but my intention is to express in my work the beauty of life that, gratefully, I am being allowed to experience more and more.’Ever since I started painting, I have been fascinated with the different kinds of space in which our existence takes place and, recently, with the phenomenon of evolution that time adds to space. It was this fascination that urged me, first of all, to study the history of the Western art of painting. Here, I saw the evolution from Renaissance paintings, which represent windows through which we see creative imitations of reality, to the abstract paintings of the early twentieth century, which are self-referring constructions of lines, forms and colours. It was from this giant leap in the history of art, from Michelangelo to more contemporary painting, that I wanted to proceed.The search for new ways of experimenting with spatial expression soon made me put brushes and paint aside, and I started painting with the latest digital techniques. This gave me new possibilities of challenging the spectator to look again at the relationship between illusion and reality. I still call all my works paintings but now they are placed not only in space but also in time.Metakosmia is the second latest creation of visual artist, Lisette Huizenga. ‘Metakosmia’ means ‘worlds between worlds’, the so-called ‘Intermundia’ - unknown, intangible worlds - where, according to some ancient Greek philosophers, the Gods were dwelling.Metakosmia consists of a series of digital paintings in space and time. The starting point of the project is a single photo, taken by Lisette, of an architectural detail of the Atrium in the Council House of The Hague, where she had a solo exhibition in 2014. This is a beautiful building created by architect Richard Meier.3D Animation FilmThis subtle animation film cannot easily be explained and is more abstract than her former works. It depicts an etheric world in which images and sounds flow slowly but incessantly into each other. At first, nothing seems to be happening but as light and moving forms begin to appear, it transforms into a kaleidoscopic unity of abstract forms. During its fourteen minutes, new images are born from the same source until, eventually, the shapes of the beginning seem to return but now from a different, unknown source. It is up to the spectator if and how far he wants to be involved and to be immersed into this new virtual realm.The photo that forms the basis of the project represents a ‘holon’ - a perpetually self- regenerating fragment from which new worlds are eventually born.Even though it is the only image from which the whole work stems, in most of the paintings, this basic image is no longer recognisable.For this film Kerry Woodward created a musical sound world based on an analysis he made with Lisette of the pictures in the film in all their details. Kerry included the so-called twelve-tone system, invented by Arnold Schoenberg at the beginning of the twentieth century, a system without a fixed keynote, ‘abstract’ music, not based on the harmonic tonal system and thus opening up new worlds of sound.