Bart Somers

Bart Somers is a sculpturer whose favorite medium is metal. He models it with a hammer and finishes it with a welding torch. His sculptures present characters and animals in motion, in action, sometimes running. Their balance is perfect.

Bart Sommers explains: "Three hundred kilos of corroding iron, 15 mm thick and as flat as a coin, wait in front of my large hydraulic press and my cutting torch, like a painter's empty canvas, or the empty screen in front of the writer.

In this very moment my imagination takes shape and I flash my torch. Each facet of my sculpture achieves its form as I patiently work towards the end result. I sculpt with a forging hammer and paint with my cutting torch – a pure way of working.

My workshop on the warf in Heusden stimulates ceation on a large scale. From the moment I arrive in the morning, the clanging of hammers and the wail of grinders become my ringtones. It’s fascinating to see how iron can assume organic shapes, how it can be made soft as a horse’s muzzle. And when you stroke the rump of my zebra, you can feel the curve of its firm buttocks."