Sean Peleman
works
Memory Cart (2026)
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Steel, Aluminium, Wood, XPS-foam, nylon wheels
By sealing the well, it becomes a container for both repressed thoughts and active desires. The imposed lid assumes a regulatory function, censoring the collective and personal subconscious alike, interrupting the act of projection which traditionally defines the well.
Mobilizing the structure by placing it on wheels removes it from it’s historical and ritualistic context. Once a fixed site of reflection now operates like a pull-cart, recontextualized as a moving vessel. In this shift, the well transforms from a shared sanctuary into a vehicle of transport, reshaping our relationship to memory and the subconscious as something carried, displaced, and continually in motion.
lol
Application (2025)
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Typewriter text, stamps, passport photograph, print on A0 billboard format
Selected for the 2025 Onboard Biennale, The Application responds to the theme of Relationships by reflecting on the quiet parallels between artistic and everyday encounters with bureaucracy. Centered around a fictional document, the work blends surrealism with the familiar cadence of administrative language, issuing a denial laced with fabricated sanctions and obscure regulatory warnings.
Installed in public space, the piece engages passersby with a form that feels both official and slightly off. Its exaggerated tone exposes the performative nature of institutional authority, inviting reflection on the broader sociopolitical structures that shape access and legitimacy—within the art world, and far beyond it.
On view from 14 to 28 July 2025 – Cockerillkaai (across M HKA), Antwerp.
Are you still watching? (2025)
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Installation in the form of a minimalist living room setting. Within the space, six pre-programmed television channels cycle endlessly while a performer reclines on a red velvet, shell-shaped couch, dressed in a fly mask and suit. The channels deliberately lack coherent narratives, mirroring the often fragmented and superficial nature of real television, and reinforcing the installation’s surreal atmosphere. Objects and silhouettes transcend their sculptural presence, serving instead as a platform that opens up questions of presence, identity, and the performative gaze.
Exhibition opening with performance on April 24th, 2025. On view until June 1th at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Antwerp.
Performances during Antwerp Art Weekend;
Thursday 8pm 29/05/2025
Saturday 4pm 01/06/2025
This exhibition was made possible through the Hugo Roelandt Award 2024.
Picture copyright M HKA/clinckx
Waiting for the words (2024)
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In a blacked-out studio, a fictional space took shape as both installation and film set. It drew from Peleman’s grandfather’s writing room, rebuilt with hollow walls, creaking floorboards, and a combination of found and handmade objects. At the center stood a table with silicon pages. Their soft, slightly uncanny quality gave them a quiet presence in the room.
Works appeared across the walls and floor, arranged in a way that suggested a narrative without fixing it in place. Artificial lighting and grainy VHS monitors set the tone. The space carried the atmosphere of a film set during a pause. Behind a curtain, a mechanical hand moved in a slow, repetitive wave, casting its shadow onto a nearby window frame. The gesture was simple and persistent, and gradually became a focal point.
Peleman, together with Sem Beerens and Tamara Sam, occupied the space throughout the installation. They moved between roles as filmmakers, assistants, and technicians, activating the setting as part of an ongoing performance. Visitors received blank scripts, encouraging them to take part and shape their own position within the work.
The installation marked the conclusion of Peleman’s Master project and the first collaboration under the name ALAS!. Over the course of a week, the space shifted through small adjustments. A 1960s Telefunken radio played continuously, influencing the atmosphere with its changing tones.
The mechanical hand, developed with Ignaz Van Der Stighelen, remained the only moving element. The rest of the installation held a sense of suspension and openness. Objects throughout the space suggested fragments of possible stories. The blank scripts, titled Scripts for Living, invited reflection through open-ended questions about absence and unfinished narratives.
The room gradually became a gathering place for students and friends. Its familiarity and openness encouraged people to spend time, return, and engage in different ways. The installation created space for reflection and for imagining what might follow.
Performed and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from June 14 to 28, 2024.
This project received the following awards and nominations:
– Horlait Dapsens Award (2024)
– Hugo Roelandt Award (2024)
– Metropolis M Nomination (2024)