Persona
the mask one presents to the world
Persona is an art platform, consisting of Pieter Desmet, Steffi Mennen and Jonathan De Maeyer, that was founded in January 2019. Steffi and Pieter met each other at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (ARTESIS) where they both studied contemporary dance. After they graduated they decided to put their artistic views together and create Persona. In 2020 Jonathan joined the platform after video- and photographing Make Me Think Us, the first work created within Persona.
Persona is a fusion between performative and audiovisual art. The visual language navigates in between the realistic, the cinematic and the distorted. By putting these visions next to each other we create an alien landscape that feels like a mirror for the audience.
Persona researches the various ways an identity can manifest, from the internal subconscious entity to the external mask one presents to the world. And the duality between all these different personas within one being.
Can we showcase the intimacy of the process of an ever developing identity?
Steffi Mennen (1996, the Netherlands) graduated in June 2017. Next to her work for Persona she is working internationally as a freelance dancer. She is working or has worked with a.o. Renan Martins de Oliveira, Marcelo Moncada, Company Oliveira & Bachtler, Cosmin Manolescu and Tuur Marinus. She also teaches ballet at Retina Dance Company in Antwerp and she gives workshops for LAPvzw.
Pieter Desmet (1996, Belgium) graduated in June 2018. Pieter is a freelance dancer and has worked for a.o. Ricardo Ambrózio, Lotte Boonstra, De Veerman and BRONKS. At the moment he is working for Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez. Next to this he also teaches contemporary dance in professional dance schools in Euorpe and is a guest teacher at the inclusive Labo at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
Jonathan De Maeyer (1994, Belgium) lives and works in Ghent. He obtained a master in the Fine Arts Photography at LUCA School of Arts, Ghent. He both works on autonomous projects and on projects in collaboration with other artists and musicians. Jonathan is working on a digital and analogue image archive (photo and video) that forms the basis for associatively assembled series that try to translate the fascination for the unknown landscape.