memymom®

CHAPTER IV - The Fourth Hatch | 2022-2032

In the coming years, memymom plans to embark on its fourth chapter, titled The Fourth Hatch, which was launched in 2022. The duo plans to make this a 10-year undertaking, and offer little in the way of explanation on what kind of imagery it will entail, yet, mention that it will, in effect, be a creative undertaking “where freedom reigns supreme”.

ACT I - Einzelgänger

Marilène and Lisa, as artists with distinct approaches and styles, have a strong collaborative and symbiotic relationship. Their individuality as artists, while being different people who get along well and create separately, is a source of strength for their duo. They complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, producing remarkable works that showcase their unique talents while being cohesive as a whole. This unique combination of individuality and collaboration is evident in their works, reflecting their mutual respect and appreciation for each other's artistic vision.

Einzelganger is a significant work for Lisa De Boeck, as it is the first time she presents a solo work. The exhibition is part of her first exhibition at Villa Pérochon during ‘Les Rencontres 2022 de la jeune photographie internationale’ in Niort. Lisa has been using photography as a reflexive tool since a young age, often through self-portraiture. Her early impulses have continued to inspire her photographic work over the years, which focuses primarily on self-portraits taken while testing at home, traveling, or living alone. This selection of work showcases her docufictional and fairytale-like images that invite viewers to explore various interpretations.

ACT II - memybombay

The 'memybombay' project brings to life the people and artists of Bombay Beach through the creative lens of memymom. In this project, they've managed to produce a series of images that are both striking and deeply connected to the essence of Bombay Beach, fueled by their own vivid imagination. This work is a direct result of their time spent in the area, allowing their creativity to be amplified by the unique environment and its inhabitants. 'memybombay' not only showcases the artistic side of Bombay Beach but also reflects the genuine spirit of its community.

ACT III - The Fourth Hatch

I've had the privilege of traveling from Belgium to Bombay Beach for the past three years, becoming an integral part of the Bombay Beach community. As one half of the artist duo memymom, alongside my mother, Marilène Coolens, we've embarked on an ongoing interdisciplinary project that has deeply intertwined with the essence of this unique place. Our work, including a photo series featuring BB residents, culminated in the unveiling of "The Fourth Hatch" at last year's Biennale, a project brought to life with the help of artist Sean Guerrero.

"The Fourth Hatch" (2022-2032) marks the fourth chapter in our artist career, exploring the intricate themes of memory, identity, and the passage of time. Central to this chapter is a crooked garden shed in our Brussels studio, a poignant symbol of life's imperfections and the idiosyncratic nature of our world. This shed, representing not only personal memories and family history but also a reflection on the troubled times we navigate, has been transformed into a sculpture and placed in the surreal, ephemeral setting of the Salton Sea.

This transformation of the shed into a sculpture, and its placement within the Salton Sea's surreal landscape, transcends its initial symbolism. It becomes a literal and metaphorical gateway, connecting disparate worlds and highlighting the shared human experiences across them. It's a testament to the idea that through art, we can transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, creating a shared space for reflection, understanding, and connection. Here, it stands as proof of the overflowing challenges of our times.

ACT IV - Art Theorema #3

As we continue to navigate through a world shaped by transitions and transformations, Art Theorema #3 is a powerful reflection of the global crises we face today. We're honored to see memymom's dialogue now preserved within the Fondazione Imago Mundi Collection.

Featuring 198 works by 170 artists from over 80 countries, Art Theorema #3 captures the essence of crisis not as a destructive force, but as a catalyst for change. Each piece is a unique narrative captured in the distinctive 10x12 cm format - a trait of the Imago Mundi Collection.

In a series of insightful interviews, curators Claudio Scorretti and Irina Ungurenau have woven together the voices of artists contributing to this new collection. These dialogues explore the multifaceted dimensions of crisis, offering perspectives that challenge, inspire, and provoke thought on what it means to navigate and emerge from times of upheaval.

Art Theorema #3 is more than a collection; it's a global conversation about resilience, transformation, and the indomitable spirit of creativity in the face of adversity.

Marilène and Lisa, you’ve been working together as an artist duo for nearly two decades. How do you feel your work has evolved over the years, and how has it been shaped by your personal mother-daughter relationship?

Marilène: Compared to our beginnings, our collaboration has evolved and our work has become much stronger, grown-up, professional and conscious. This also stems from the fact that we are self-taught and spent a huge amount of time practising and playing around when we started working digitally in 2004 as memymom after The Umbilical Vein (1990–2003). I remember that the dawn of the digital era felt quite magical, in the sense that, suddenly, you could do anything you wanted. Around 2010, Lisa started giving our work some direction. She started defining objectives that fell in line with her vision of memymom. In that sense, both our relationship and working method help our work progress. As far as I’m concerned, it’s easier to work with someone who is younger and in touch with her epoch. In general, I don’t really think about our mother-daughter relationship as being an axiom or genuinely important when we work together.

Lisa: For me, our evolution is perceptible in the artworks we selected for this project: We’ve Seen Things, 2018. It’s an image from our third chapter Somewhere Under the Rainbow (2016– 2021) and is part of a triptych along with the images Many Things and Awful Things. We showed this focal image during our largest retrospective solo exhibition to date, which was held at Brussel’s Le Botanique in 2021, Home Game. I’m struck by the contrast between me playing at being a glamourous grown-up in the nineties. And now, in 2018, the adult me plays a crying kid and other very harsh roles. It is the manifestation of an evolution and reflects the way in which we automatically and intuitively react to the era in which we live. As time goes by, you start feeling the need to tell different stories and convey other feelings and even opinions. This does not necessarily reflect any form of activism, but we have continuously drawn our inspiration and reacted to the world we see around us, and as the world has most definitely changed now, our work has naturally followed suit. It’s very difficult to define exactly how our relationship has shaped our work. We are used to one another and incredibly comfortable together, but most importantly, we are two individuals who get along very well. The mutual trust and our symbiosis play a huge role.
 

Using a plethora of theatrical and cinema references, your photographs stage stories, symbols, and recognisable patterns of our contemporary world. If we were to imagine a film in which you told the combination of your stories, what would it look like, and which director would you choose? 

Marilène: The first names that spring to mind are Paul Thomas Anderson, whose directing is very delicate and elegant, and Jane Campion, who is subcutaneously terribly ferocious. From a purely visual perspective, I would love to work with directors like Leos Carax and Noé Gaspard, who are both very modern in their approach and whose universes are as colourful and peculiar as ours.

Lisa: I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years. At this point, I honestly believe that we would be the only ones capable of telling our stories, since we hold the keys to the many references we use (all the secrets hidden in plain sight) in there. It would take an outsider time to apprehend our world. Our visual approach would be that which we use in our work, and our stories would have the same dubious possibilities. We could very well go in any direction, since ultimately, our images are fluid and change over time, there’s not just one storyline or one movement. I am very curious about one artist and director, Miranda July, who remains profoundly true to her vision. She has a very unique way of seeing the world and apprehending relationships. That and the freedom that seeps into her world are simply admirable

How did the transition from analogue to digital impact your work? 

Marilène: I tend to feel somewhat trapped with analogue photography, but there are so many more opportunities and choices with digital photography. The transition proved very smooth, since digital photography offers many more options and endless possibilities. I felt happy switching to something that felt so natural to me. We adapted our way of playing around and we started working differently, perhaps more imaginatively.

Lisa: I have great memories linked to the analogue era, but I never photographed using an analogue camera – that was only Marilène. But I’ve always been fascinated by this process of yesteryear and the way in which you could only take 36 photographs, wait while they were developed before sitting in the car to select our favourite shots before pinning them onto the walls of our house where we would exhibit them before enlarging some. Looking back, there were very intimate moments. There was no social media, we only did what we did for ourselves, for our own pleasure. That sense of enjoyment has changed. Today, everything is so accessible and there is an overkill in the images culture. As a child of the digital age, I started taking photos non-stop with this small digital camera in early 2004. At that time, I would photograph everything, all the time… I was addicted to capturing images. It was extremely simple to upload images directly on a computer, open photoshop and start working and reworking those images. This was hugely important as it meant we could play around even more than before. Marilène sees this process as a sort of painting insofar as you rework images. So, I would not say that analogue photography is restrictive, but rather that it’s about the medium and possibilities that most inspire you. And that you are drawn into. And that’s how digital photography has taken us to where we are now.
 

How did the forced isolation and countless changes brought about by the pandemic affect your work?

Marilène: Personally, I don’t think the pandemic has changed much our way of thinking. However, the environment and the outside world have undergone a drastic change insofar as you no longer engage with people as you did before. Human contacts have become more complicated… and as we also work with other people, it becomes even more interesting. During the pandemic, we were forced to work together all the time. We did exactly what we needed to do, which is a virtue in itself. We made images using the ideas we had before the pandemic hit in 2020. We had time on our hands and were broaching issues which have become increasingly problematic in the past two years. The boldness that permeates these images is greater because we were isolated. And that’s what kept us going. In moments like these, you need discipline and character. However, we also felt a form of emptiness when we stopped to think about “why” we should still carry on doing our thing. Was it “useful”? After a while, your thoughts submerge you. Let’s not forget that humans are social creatures. If you are isolated for too long, you break…

Lisa: It’s been intense, but this change was a long time coming. You could say it was almost overdue, as we embarked on our chapter Somewhere Under the Rainbow in 2016. This chapter reflects on the times that are a-changin’. This is when the terror attacks struck Paris and Brussels. The mood was dark, gloomy and heavy. I remember standing by the window, thinking of the rainbow sculpture nearby the Belgica subway station here in Brussels… That’s when it hit me, we are under the rainbow. We felt this coming, so it comes to no surprise. It’s just one more event, another surprise that confirms the profound change in the times. But during the past two years, we’ve moved into a new stage at staggering speed. Today, this is where we are, in the midst of a Neo-liberal age, where’s there’s less room and you have to think inside the box you’ve been allocated. We did a handful of shoots during the lockdown. We had gathered many ideas and trunks filled with clothes and costumes over the years, and so we did what we always do, but the world came differently to us this time, as a reaction to what was happening outside. These experiences have left a strong mark on our work, although our projects were already ahead of their time and reacting to what was taking place all around the globe. These past years have struck us hard on an emotional level. We found that the crying kid from the image We’ve Seen Things, where the tears silently run down our faces as we stand powerless watching the world crumble around us, best represents this feeling.

ACT V - TOME II:  Image(s) d’une collection

We are honored to share that memymom’s work has been included in « Images d’une collection - Tome II », the newly published catalogue documenting the Musée de la Photographie’s remarkable collection.

Our artwork Unlocking the Locket, acquired in 2019 following memymom’s solo exhibition at the museum, curated by Xavier Canonne, is part of this prestigious volume. This catalogue reflects the growth of the museum’s collection, which now encompasses over 1.5 million negatives and 100,000 positive prints—a testament to its dedication to preserving and celebrating the art of photography.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Musée de la Photographie Charleroi for this recognition and their continued support of memymom’s work.

Get a copy through the following link

ACT VI - XIBT magazine

Lisa De Boeck had the great pleasure of engaging in a conversation with Alice Zucca for the latest issue of XIBT Contemporary Art Magazine. In the interview, she discusses her work as one half of the artistic duo memymom, alongside her mother, Marilène Coolens and her role as Director of Studio Jean Boghossian since 2022.

"The most stimulating theme in my artistic practice is the human experience—the raw reality of life and human beings, captured and interpreted through our lens. In memymom’s work, I strive to reflect the complexities of emotions, relationships, and the contradictions that make life both challenging and beautiful. This remains a constant source of creative fuel.

One of the most exciting moments in the creative process for me is when an idea begins to take shape in my mind. I let it sit there for a while, going through different scenarios and possibilities, having endless internal conversations about the options, and making internal renders, so to speak, visualizing works and possibilities in spaces. That phase of mental exploration—where the idea exists only in your head—is my favorite part. It’s only after that long dialogue with myself that I start to materialize it, giving form to the dream. Some ideas have been with me for years, and I like that. I’ll get to them when I’m ready, after fully exploring them in my mind."

Read the Full Interview here