Maximiliaan Royakkers (BE, 1988) is an artist and architect based in Brussels. Through his transdisciplinary practice he rehearses alternative spatial dramaturgies of living-together; through intensive fieldwork, collaborative research, performative and spatial gestures he reflects on social, political and ecological conditions that unfold in places. His work develops in continuous dialogue with communities, other artists, architects and experts from different fields and is nourished by artistic, architectural and pedagogical approaches.
Recent works are focusing on the socio-spatial conditions of industrial agriculture, the transformation of a former coal mine landscape and our relationships with energy infrastructure.
Next to his own work, he punctually realizes scenography for other artists whose work touches on his own reflections. He is a founding member of Seasonal Neighbours, a member of Jubilee, platform for artistic research and a teacher at the faculty of Architecture of the University of Antwerp.
During his residency Maximiliaan wishes to entangle the daily life of Decoratelier and its neighbors with Somewhere Here, Somewhere There, a current performance work under development. This project, a collaboration with artist and architect Ciel Grommen, started through a question from a befriended farmer to renovate his housing facilities for foreign seasonal workers and unfolds into fundamental inquiries about living and working, the livability of our culture and what it means to be home at work.
