‘The Landscape is My Alibi’ is an installation Nils Verkaeren created between December 3 and March 3, 2021. The work consists of 324 imaginary journeys that he recorded with oil on wood in his Antwerp studio.

Traveling to remote, rural areas is a huge inspiration for Verkaeren. Due the corona measures he was challenged to unleash further development within the four walls of his painting studio. Verkaeren started to dream: narrative and lyrical, but also in terms of abstraction. He made imaginary travel reports that despite his stationary phase contained a lot of energetic movements. This energy had until now only been distilled by nature and now it came fort from his mind and the act of painting. From this moment on Verkaeren realized nature was not the subject but an alibi to discover the act of painting itself.

In his Antwerp atelier Verkaeren made an act of resistance: ‘if I am not allowed to travel I travel in my imagination’. With this resilient and positive protest Verkaeren wants to prove that no one can limit the freedom of one’s mind. 324 times he mentally crossed borders. For the first time Verkaeren felt free in the cage of his atelier. He created his own freedom state where no laws and restrictions apply.