Liliane Vertessen
(Leopoldsburg,
1952 )
Liliane Vertessen uses her own body as an artistic medium. She stages tableaux vivants and performs herself in a wide variety of settings and roles. During private happenings, she dresses up in romantic robes, lingerie, tiger suits or male costumes. Analogue photos of these dress-ups are coloured in afterwards and assembled with objects and neon lights. The self-portraits are glittery paragons of kitsch eroticism whereby Vertessen hides behind clichéd images of ‘the woman’. She poses as a queen, a femme fatale, a prostitute and a lady, but also as an innocent girl, while all the time her true identity remains elusive. In 1996 Liliane Vertessen won the Culture Prize of the Flemish Community. Art on Campus owns a large sculpture by her on the City Campus
