Anneleen Heirbaut. Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Artesis Plantijn University College. New Talent Award Nominee 2025

Name of graduation student: Anneleen Heirbaut
Name of guiding teachers: Edu Tarin, Maximilian Rittler

Nominated by Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Artesis Plantijn University College.


The notion that “true love requires courage and the willingness to reveal our fragile and broken parts” can be understood not only as a poetic sentiment but also as a framework for creative and scientific inquiry. Love, as both an affective and physiological phenomenon, embodies ambiguity: it oscillates between vulnerability and resilience, between pain and joy.
In artistic practice, this duality becomes a generative force. Anneleen’s work expands this dynamic, as her creative process mirrors the oscillations of these emotional states. Moments of hesitation followed by renewed enthusiasm, experimentation, and eventual resolution. The act of making thus becomes a metaphor for the lived experience of love, where fragility or enthusiasm are not concealed but transformed into material expression.

Anneleen’s artistic methodology can be read as an embodied experience of these sentimental realities. Just as the heart undergoes stress and adaptation, her materials are subjected to processes of fracture and repair. The metaphor of the broken heart is therefore translated into tangible form, where each manipulation of matter reflects the wisdom required to endure emotional rupture. Her practice demonstrates how artistic exploration can serve as a parallel to biological processes, offering a symbolic yet concrete representation of healing and transformation.

Ultimately, the semiotics of the heart in Anneleen’s work transcends cliché by engaging with both cultural symbolism and scientific insight. Shaping, bending, cracking, engraving, and experimenting with materials such as glass and 3D-printed forms make her creations stand as testimonies of sensitivity, resilience, and personal truth, while simultaneously resonating with the universality of love as a human condition.
/ Edu Tarin & Maximilian Rittler


The statement of the artist:
Echoes of Love 
Love is the most universal language -understandable to all- but at the same time the most romanticized. We often see it through rose-colored glasses, when in reality it also has
a complex, sometimes painful downside.

Love and addiction have more in common than we often think.
The nucleus accumbens, a key brain region in the reward system, is activated in infatuation as well as addiction. This explains why love can feel so intense and why heartbreak hurts physically. The stomach-dropping or piercing feeling through our body.

When we fall in love, our brain makes not only dopamine -the “happiness hormone”- but also cortisol, the stress hormone.
This explains why falling in love can be both euphoric and nerve-wracking at the same time. With a heartbreak, the combination of stress and emotional pain can even lead to physical symptoms, such as insomnia, palpitations and, in extreme cases, “broken-heart syndrome.”
A temporary weakening of the heart muscle due to intense emotions.

We twist ourselves into impossible corners and carry burdens for those we love. Sometimes we wish we could take over the pain and worries of our loved ones, not realizing that in doing so we weigh down our own hearts. True love requires courage and the willingness to show our fragile and broken parts.

The heart as an archetypal symbol of love represents a perfect, idealistic vision. Often represented in a symmetrical, well thought out and perfect shape.
But love is rarely perfect. It comes in rough, damaged forms and includes not only romance, but also vulnerability, perseverance and resilience. I admire how heavy but beautiful the pressure can be.

Always paying attention to placement, relationship between viewer and wearer, color and texture. I try to address certain findings in these different pieces such as the personal story of the wearer, what the consequences from a certain action can be or the weight on our shoulders. In the many relationships we form in our lives -from acquaintances and friends to family and partners- we are always faced with choices and questions we don’t have clear answers to.

How do we deal with this aspect of love that often still feels like a taboo? Does everyone struggle sometimes, or is it just me?
We balance between what we show of ourselves and how much we are willing to endure for each other.
It is precisely in the interplay of beauty, joy and playfulness as opposed to pain, suffering, and heaviness where the essence of love lies.

They are tangible testimonies of sensitivity, combativeness and personal truth. Small monuments on the body, that tell stories where words fail.

This burden can be heavy, but we carry it with love.


Contact:
E-mail: anneleen.heirbaut@gmail.com
Instagram: @annln_official

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