Anne Marie Maes is a Brussels-based multidisciplinary artist whose work blends art, science, and ecology. With a background in botany and visual anthropology, she explores ecosystems, alchemical processes, and the intricate relationship between nature and form. Her practice integrates living organisms, biological, digital, and traditional media to examine self-generating art processes. On the roof of her studio, she has created an experimental garden and field laboratory, studying insects, bacteria, and natural phenomena to understand how form emerges in nature. Maes’s long-term projects, such as Connected Open Greens, Bee Agency, and Laboratory for Form and Matter, engage with ecological systems through collaboration with universities andfablabs. Her work is deeply influenced by the temporal nature of processes and the use of natural and everyday materials, drawing inspiration from the working methods of Bauhaus and Arte Povera. Maes has received multiple awards and exhibited internationally, pushing the boundaries of art and ecology.
“We are contaminated by our encounters; they change who we are as we make way for others. As contamination changes world-making projects, mutual worlds – and new directions – may emerge.”
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World
NOW – ACTUAL – NEWS
I am very happy that my work is part of Magical Realism, the large-scale exhibition organized by Wiels Brussels in 2025. Magical Realism stands at the juncture of scientific and cosmogonic narratives encompassing myths and speculation, as well as theories and cosmologies that trace the history and spaces of the universe and its organisms, matters, and beings. From 29 May to 28 September, 2025.
BEE AGENCY, soon at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Athens (EMST) 15.05.2025 – 15.02.2026
about Anne Marie Maes
AnneMarie Maes is an artist and researcher who has been active as an independent professional artist since 1999, and as founder and coordinator of several artist collectives.
AnneMarie was a fellow in international art/science programs, has written articles and academic papers and has published several publications on her work. She realized artworks commissioned for public space, as ‘Closed Circuits’ (Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Brussels) and ‘Elbe Bienen’ for the art in public space program of the city of Hamburg (De). She was awarded several prizes and mentions in prestigeous festivals as Ars Electronica among others. AnneMarie Maes has exhibited widely as a solo-artist and in group exhibitions in prestigious musea, galleries, public spaces and art-science festivals in many EU countries, the Americas and Asia.
Key museum exhibitions include at Bozar (Brussels, BE), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France), National Arts Museum (Latvia), Borges Cultural Center (Buenos Aires, Argentinia), Domeinen (Sittard, NL), Science and Technology Museum (Milan, IT), Museu do Amanha (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), Fundacio Miro (Barcelona, ES), Haus der Elektronische Kunste, (Basel, CH), Centre Wallonie Bruxelles à Paris (Paris, Fr), IMAL (Brussels, BE), IKOB Museum of Contemporary art (Eupen, BE), Laboral (Gijon, ES), Museum for Art and Architecture – MAAT (Lisbon, PO), amongst others.
Important festival participations include Ars-Electronica (Linz, AU), Transmediale (Berlin, DE), Mirage Festival (Lyon, FR), PIKSEL (Bergen, NO), Resonances (Ispra, IT).
Gallery shows include at Sapar Contemporary Art (New York), Silva Zona (Korcula, Croatia), Koç University Gallery (Istambul), Skolska Gallery (Prague), PILAR Free University Gallery (Brussels, BE), Wissenschaftskolleg (Berlin,BE), AHWNN (Ostend, Be), Emergent (Veurne, BE), SongEun ArtSpace (Seoul, South Korea), La Kunsthalle (Mulhouse, France)
Exhibitions, Residencies, workshops and Lectures 2025
10.10.2024 – 09.03.2025 – HOSTING, Centrale Brussels
13.03.2025 – 16.03.2025 – COLLECTIBLE BRUSSELS, Vanderborght Brussels
08.05.2025 – 09.05.2025 – ISELP Brussels, Symposium on the links between the Arts and the Living
15.05.2025 – 15.02.2026 – WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS? EMST (museum of centemporary art) Athens
29.05.2025 – 30.10.2025 – MAGICAL REALISM, Wiels Brussels
18.10.2025 – 03.05.2026 – 18th INTERNATIONAL TRIENNIAL of TEXTILE, Central Museum in Łódź (Pl)
Exhibitions, Residencies, workshops and Lectures 2024
15.11.2023 – 30.04.2024 – MATTER of KINSHIP – MATERIA de AFINIDADES, Casa de Mateus, Pt
18.11.2023 – 13.01.2024 – WILD RENAISSANCE, curated by G. Logé at Galerie JOUSSE, Paris
05.03.2024 – 05.03.2024 – BEE AGENCY. Material Driven Art & Design, Lecture/Workshop Luca Gent (Be)
15.04.2024 – 31.08.2024 – VULNERABILITY, Cyart, Venice Biennale (It)
21.04.2024 – 31.12.2024 – POLLINATIONS, Utrecht (Nl)
26.04.2024 – 30.04.2024 – FINISSAGE & PUBLICATION ‘Matter of Kinship’ + Publication Umbigo (Pt)
06.06.2024 – 22.09.2024 – LIFE OF ANIMALS, Muhka Antwerpen (Be)
28.08.2024 – 29.08.2024 – UMBIGO & CYFEST/Vulnerability, presentation and round table discussion, Venice
11.09.2024 – 17.11.2024 – ORANGERIE DER FURSORGE, nGbK Berlin (expo and performance, Berlin Art week)
26.09.2024 – 30.09.2024 – CURIEUCITY festival ULB/VUB, Sensorial Skins at P.A.R.T.S
10.10.2024 – 09.03.2025 – HOSTING, Microbial Ancestors at La Centrale Brussels
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