For their duo show Siamese Others at DMW Gallery, William Ludwig Lutgens (1991) and Elen Braga (1984) have a shared interest to reimagine artistic practices through the lens of conjoined twins, exploring the permeable boundaries of the ego, the fragile equilibrium between autonomy and dissociation, and how we navigate our differences within the context of shared experiences.
Elen Braga (b. 1984, Maranhão, Brazil) is a Brazilian artist based in Antwerp whose multidisciplinary practice spans installation, sculpture, textiles, video, and performance. Her work often emerges from labor-intensive processes and self-imposed physical tasks, through which she explores themes of strength, resilience, and transformation. Drawing on mythology, religion, and personal symbolism, Braga revisits ancient narratives to examine how they persist in contemporary beliefs and social structures.
Frequently combining monumental textile works with performative elements, her practice reflects on identity, power, and the body’s relationship to material and space. By weaving together references from her Brazilian origins and her life in Europe, Braga creates works that are both deeply personal and politically resonant, questioning ideas of monumentality, collective memory, and the narratives that shape contemporary society.
William Ludwig Lutgens (b. 1991, Belgium) is an Antwerp-based artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, text, and installation. His work often engages with popular culture, literature, and everyday language, using humor and irony as tools to reflect on contemporary social and political realities. Lutgens frequently combines figurative imagery with fragments of text, creating layered compositions in which narrative and visual elements interact.
Through references to comics, advertising, and historical painting, he explores how images and stories circulate and shape collective perception. His works balance sincerity and satire, inviting viewers to question systems of meaning, authorship, and cultural production. By blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, Lutgens constructs a playful yet critical perspective on the images and narratives that define the present.