Siamese Others
13 May - 20 June, 2026.
Duo exhibition with Elen Braga at DMW Gallery, Antwerp, BE.
"My body is the abyss between me and myself”, wrote Fernando Pessoa, capturing the paradox of an existence where the self is always divided: the observer and the observed, the bridge and the void. In the duo exhibition Siamese Others, Elen Braga and William Ludwig Lutgens take up this metaphysical thread, exploring the blurred boundaries of identity through the lens of conjoined existence. If the body is a "dream of a bridge", then here that bridge has become flesh, or at least a skin of latex. The body is a site of contest and fusion where the path to the "other" is built into the self, reflecting a world in which we are never truly alone but always entangled: fused to the gazes, digital echoes and histories of the others we carry with us. In a departure from their habitual practices, Braga and Lutgens literalize the above tension through a shared medium: steel, shaped by the plasma cutter and the arc of the weld. This choice transforms the "abyss" into a visceral act of carving a "self" out of a collective mass, resulting in works that function as a physical exchange between two voices navigating a single, resistant material. These conjoined forms oscillate between the psychological and the systemic.
A-somatic Spill, 2026, welded line drawing on steel with linseed oil finish, and painted canvas, 143 x 100 cm.
Excerpt of Siamese Others, 2026, 15:40 Min. In collaboration with Elen Braga.