Sander Vloebergs is a PhD student in Theology and Literature. He directs the Artistic Theology Lab and manages this website. Sander is a visual artist and choreographer. He works on a project called Visual and Visionary.
VISUAL AND VISIONARY
Through these blog posts Sander will show the first results of a project in contemplative imaginary seeing and artistic theology. This project contains visual material which is the result of a practical and theoretical exploration of the Visions of the medieval mystic Hadewijch. His reading of the texts was heavily influenced by my art process. He explored the visions and searched for images that spoke, figures that performed a story. This reading is not a rational analysis but an intuitive dialogue with the source material, a communication through images, colors, rhythm and movement rather than discourse. To perform this exchange of images, one has to open up, break down borders and pray. He calls this stage of getting ready for the visual/visionary experience a silent prayer, a letting go of the self and a floating on (divine) inspiration. This contemplative state is hard to reach and rarely given. These posts – always accompanied by the illustration and published in a fixed sequence – are the results of my struggle to combine the visionary experience which is given with the rational reflection which is demanded.
Artistic Theology Lab 