Artistic research in the fields of Bioart, energy art with transdisciplinary approach.

Bartaku stands for the artist practice of Bart H.M. Vandeput (BE), Doctor of Arts, living and working in Belgium and Finland. With a background in Social Sciences (Lic.) and drumming, my practice focusses on the art of enquiry in a processual and collaborative way of play instigated by a cocktail of serendipity and `unmanageable mere happenings´. Inspiration is found in music, philosophy and Anywhere.

Currently I direct a collective inquiry into the microbiomes in cooling towers of nuclear facilities. In this context I am a postdoc researcher at the Centre for Bioethics at Antwerp University and enjoy visiting roles at Aalto, Ghent and Hasselt Universities’ physics and microbiology departments.

My most renowned work is the questioning of humans´ relation with energy, being and becoming in the “temporary Photoelectric Digestopians” (tPED) Lab series. The work features digestible gelatinous solar cells tested and tasted on human tongues and the expressions in the faces of the maker_tester that have been photographed. The tPED Labs evolved in the period 2016 – 2021, in collaboration with biodesigner Carole Collet and (her) students of Central St. Martins College (UAL).

My entanglement with Baroa belaobara, the Aronia m. plantation in the midwest of Latvia, has been developing in the form of practice-based doctoral studies at the Department of Arts, Design and Architecture of Aalto University (FI). They culminated in the monograph (diss.) `Baroa belaobara: berryapple´, published in the summer of 2021.
Accessible online via the PDF-link at the bottom of this page. For the printed limited edition see Aalto bookshop or Bookdepository.

My work is often situated in the folds and cracks of formal classifications. At Aalto University the Aamo art science group has been investigating the epiphanic signalling experienced at the Baroa belaobara plantation (Lat): entangle the relation with light shared by the plants and an art work, supposedly-humanly defined as iconic. The medium used hereby is the natural dye sensitised glass solar cell. In 2020 the explorations evolve into the first hand-painted solar panel painting, interpreting a J.M.W. Turner painting from 1842.

Since 2004 I have been collaborating extensively with various artists, scientists and art collectives like FoAM (BE), Nadine (BE), Okno (BE), Baltan Labs (NL) Xaquixe (MX), Serde (LV). He also worked with researchers and students in institutes like the Future Textiles/Materials Department of Central St. Martins College (Univ. of the Arts London); artscience interfaculty of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Hol); Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies (apass; BE) and Helsinki International Artists Program (Hiap, FI) as resident and participant of “Frontiers in Retreat”, an EU-funded program on Arts and Ecology with 8 arts organizations and 30 artists, including Bartaku (2015-2017). Since 2016 I am member of the Finnish Bioart Society and since 2023 of the Eco- and Bioart Lab network, Linköping University (SE).
I am founding member of artist collectives HangarOH (LV; 2016) and r_Ohm (BE; 2016).

Lastly, to situate my work I like to quote Finnish art critic Sini Mononen´s words:
“Bartaku´s solo exhibition at the SOLU Gallery looks somewhat like an ordinary bio art exhibition. Wild starting points, however, undermine the dominant position of science as the starting point for research into plants and the natural environment. Being humorous, genre-blending and procedural, Bartaku’s work is somewhat reminiscent of Fluxus principles.” – Sini Mononen, Helsingin Sanomat, 13 September 2019.  The Online version in Finnish is accessible after registration.