An Mertens is media artist, storyteller, nature and spiritual guide and she occasionally writes fiction. She has lived in Brussels for more than half her life. This has everything to do with her love of the artist’s life as well as for the Sonian forest. Her activities are spread across several websites: artistic projects via https://www.anaisberck.be/, meditative forest walks via https://www.moonwalks.be/, collective algoliterary work via https://algolit.net/, artistic work until 2019 via https://paramoulipist.be/.
Context
In 2007, An was asked by Constant if she didn’t feel like thinking about what it means to be a writer and storyteller in a digital environment. From 2008 until the end of 2021, An also became a part-time core member of Constant, combining the collective work with her own research questions.
Constant is an organisation for Art and Media in Brussels since 1998. Choosing to exclusively use free software tools and licences, Constant focuses on creating collaborative practices, using feminist theory as a methodology. Thanks to Constant An had the opportunity to meet many hundreds of artists, techno-activists, tinkerers, creatives, academics and critical initiators, at home and abroad. She also collaborated with many of them. This journey has deeply shaped her as a person and an artist. Big thanks to everyone in the Constant Galaxy!
Unusual bridging
Media art and computer work went hand in hand with weekly visits to the beautiful Sonian Forest, Brussels’ green lung. During the nature guide course with NGZ, An finally began to be able to recognise and sense each tree. She discovered that they are living beings, each very different. She started listening actively to how the wind plays with their leaves and how the music sounds different in a poplar tree than a beech tree. She realised that she can live thanks to the trees, breathing in and out every moment. Her respect grew and became immense.
When meditation crossed her path thanks to Jan Geurtz, reiki thanks to Lut Lemmens, and shamanism thanks to Frank Coppieters and Kathy Melcher, it became clear that she had a foot in two very different worlds: technology and spirituality. It took her several years to bridge the gap between the two. Anaïs Berck is the result – since 2019.