Stijn Stragier is a Belgian architect and a digital artist. He studied fine art photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with greatest distinction. He makes series of pseudo-photographs. Subtle anomalies in the content sparkle the viewer to reconsider spontaneous assumptions about space and structure, about people and their environment.
In his work, Stijn searches the thin line between reality and virtuality, using technology like a self-built full body 3Dscanner, photogrammetry and complex computer graphics. From real photographs of surreal scenes to realistic computer generated environments, each series makes the viewer wonder and doubt, scanning the images for answers.
Kondo, 2022-2023
Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo devised an efficient method for getting rid of unnecessary items. Start by collecting all the objects in a specific category, such as shoes or books, and stack them in one room. You'll be amazed at how much you've accumulated over the years, and in some cases, even shocked.
Western society buys, follows trends, collects, builds an identity, saves, and buys even more. The closets, storage spaces, and drawers of our homes are overflowing with items to which we are anxiously attached.
Photographer Stijn Stragier has applied the Kondo method to the scale of his hometown of Kortrijk. He collected all the stored objects from a few categories and stacked them in carefully chosen public places.
For example, 87,000 unused "shelved" smartphones were placed in the Gravenkapel (Counts' Chapel) of the Church of Our Lady. The sports hall of the Guldensporencollege Campus Kaai was filled with all the breakfast cereals that Kortrijk residents keep in their cupboards. Stacks of music CDs appeared in the concert hall of the Conservatory and the floor of the party hall Départ was covered with painkillers.
Solar, 2025
Solar is printed on used solar panels. It is a socially critical work that addresses mass production and mass consumption. New technologies give us a false sense of ecological satisfaction.
Dark areas in the image are left unprinted so the original surface of the PV cells is still visible. This creates an interesting play of depth and reflection. The visible image is a rendering of a 3D model created by the artist. No artificial intelligence or collage techniques were used. The solar panel was accurately measured and the 3D model was constructed in such a way that the image matches perfectly and enters into dialogue with the grid of the PV cells.
Seven billion solar panels are in use worldwide. A large portion is nearing the end of its life cycle. Globally, only ten percent of discarded solar panels are partially recycled, and the rest ends up in a landfill.
Jean-Marc Jancovici, French ecologist and coiner of the term "ecological footprint," attributes one of the causes of human indifference to the striatum, the part of our brain that rewards us with dopamine, for example, while scrolling on our smartphones.
We seek short-term gratification and assuage our conscience with innovations like electric cars and solar panels. However, the striatum prevents us from thoroughly considering the geopolitical issues of raw materials, circularity, and long-term consequences.