Justine Cappelle creates documentary-style works. Her art is deeply ecological, often utilizing simple or found materials and everyday situations. For instance, she collects windblown umbrellas, accidental photos people take with their smartphones, and documents her dates with men. She also photographs random words on license plates and combines these photos into meaningful sentences. With these materials and situations, she constructs a world that runs parallel to our daily reality.
Justine often operates at the intersection of the supernatural and the mundane, combining artificial and natural elements. She integrates, for example, air and water with concepts such as climate change or invisible technologies in the sky. Her work weaves art and life, fiction and reality together, bringing these different dimensions together in both her subjects and techniques.
She uses her thumb and index finger to imprint her initials, JC, like a machine endlessly reproducing her initials. Or she uses her cough and mouth to create paintings by coughing on the paint. She collects windblown umbrellas and calls them ‘sculptures made by the wind.’
The existence of both tangible and intangible things forms a central force in her creations, blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary. Her work challenges us to reconsider our perception of reality and playfully explores possibilities that break boundaries. For example, she investigates time travel through time zones, circumvents censorship to make films that would otherwise be banned, and confuses lipstick kisses from her vagina with those from the mouth.
Born as an unexpected child into the world, Justine deeply reflects on the meaning of things and our existence. She explores the boundaries between reality and fiction, truth and untruth, and possibility and impossibility. Her work sheds light on unnoticed aspects of reality and considers important social issues, advocating for the right to exist for both people and things.
This exploration of control and its absence extends to how we manage our environment, navigate natural processes, and understand the ambiguity of human interactions.
Justine Cappelle has addressed themes including climate change, censorship, intersexuality, psychosis, 5G, and chance. Her films have been shown at festivals such as IDFA, FIFA Montreal, Kassel Dokfest, and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. For her short film Maregrave, she won the Grand Prix in Georgia and an Ensor for best cinematography. She has been named cultural ambassador of Roeselare and is also a laureate of VOCATIO.
