We are Sabien Engels and Pépé Heijenberg from Studio SPÉS, a young and enthusiastic artist duo with ambition.
In our most recent projects we work with interactive lights.
We challenge the audience in a playful and accessible way to reflect on social themes such as digitization, social interaction and the public space. Our motto is: Critical thinking through wonderment.
Within our work, freedom plays an important role, not only in the themes we deal with within our projects, but also in their design. We find it important that our visitors can choose their own path within the experience we offer them, which is why we often consciously opt for few frameworks. The experience will bring up different feelings and thoughts with every visitor, where it is a pinprick for some, it may be a life changing experience for others. We design experiences to unconsciously make small changes in one’s thinking about subjects, perhaps triggering a new insight or making someone aware of their behavior.
Sabien | In 2018 Sabien graduated the course of Spatial Design at the HKU (cum laude). She specializes in spatial design and architecture, and combines her great interest in public spaces and the human behavior with a keen eye for graphic details and designs. This knowledge is expressed in accessible, inviting installations, which offer a fresh and poetic view on the psychology of human interaction. Sabien was previously working as a graphic designer at Largo Information Systems and junior designer at Mosaiek architects. Recently her entire focus has shifted to Studio SPÉS .
Pépé | Graduated in 2017 from the course of Interactive Performance Design at HKU and soon opted for a technical interpretation. He is fascinated by new developments and their effect on people and society. Pépé is an energetic thinker, who often incorporates philosophical ideas in his work. In addition to his work at SPÉS, Pépé likes to roll up his sleeves as a set builder or technical engineer. In the last phase of his course he worked on works like CHAIR_JUMP_ CHUTE (Marloeke van der Vlught) and the installation Guilty Landscapes (Dries Verhoeven). He is now fully focussed on getting Studio SPÉS to the next level.
Together we form Studio SPÉS. Our roles are equal and we are well attuned to each other after various projects. We poetically transform existing spaces into interactive meeting places. In this way we entice the visitor to look differently at the world and at themselves.
You might have seen Studio SPÉS in the come by