The Hollow Grounds

It was at the start of his career, while still a student, that François Schuiten began to write the short stories that were later published in three albums. His brother Luc was there to help him. They imagined fantasy worlds, sometimes dreamlike, sometimes disturbing. These stories, brought together under the overall title of The Hollow Grounds, represented François’s first steps as an artist.

Carapaces, brought together five stories about the mysterious odyssey of the fanelles, winged creatures capable of materializing from one world to another.

Zara is one of the seven planets of the Hollow Grounds system: its particularity is the coexistence of several individual ecosystems, among which are a circular universe in perpetual rotation and a world of vertical structures where only women live. Olive manages to escape from her universe to go to another.

In Nogegon, the second planet of the Hollow Grounds system, we meet up again with Olive who mysteriously disappears on this planet where gravity is very weak. Nelle, her accomplice, sets off to look for her.

Type: 
works on paper
Material / technique: 
pencil, wash drawing, Indian ink and acrylic on paper
Type of acquisition: 
Donated by François Schuiten
Year of acquisition: 
2013
Depository institution: 
Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels