Joya: AiR / Toon Jans / BEL
Joya: AiR / Toon Jans / Belgium
“Slowing down at Joya: AiR came as a welcome change after a busy and eventful year. A place like this kind of forces you to slow down. Gently you settle into the rythm and start to live by the rising and the setting of the sun.
What convinced me to apply to the residency was the availability of a dark room and the ecological view of the place. Two things that generally don’t really add up since dark rooms tend to use a lot of chemicals. In my work ecology and conservation are recurring themes. In the past I had felt conflicted about my love for dark room photography because of its use of different chemicals. I had taken part in different workshops about ecological dark room techniques before, but never found the time to efficiently implement them into my own practice. Bringing all of my previous gathered materials on the subject I had plenty of time to experiment with film and paper development using ecological alternatives. Returning to my own studio I feel confident enough about my newly acquired skills to rid my studio of polluting chemicals.
The second part of my stay I devoted to a book project that got shelved about a year ago. It feels like ages ago me and Michelle Daniëlse, graphic design, started working on this. Before heading to Joya: AiR the only time the book would ever come up again was when Michelle would text me: “Toon, are you working on the book again?” My answers hadn’t been positive in a long time…
Most of the book will be underwater photography and takes place on the bottom of the sea, which is funny since Joya: AiR is basically a desert. But when you walk around there long enough and squint your eyes once in a while it can start to look like the bottom of the ocean!
Happy holidays,
Toon Jans
In 2001, Toon Aerts (°1977) graduated with honours from the Sint Lukas film school in Brussels on presentation of the shortfilm "Dialing the Devil". His shortfilm, a gritty 70’s style roadmovie, won numerous national and international awards like the Leuven Kort Festival (BE), Het Grote Ongeduld (BE), Courtisane (BE), 3rd Pixie Awards (USA) and the Golden Sheaf Awards (CAN).
Toon then signed up with production company CZAR to direct commercials. He had a blitz start and quickly directed for the most creative agencies in Belgium, including Duval Guillaume Brussels, Mortierbrigade, Famous, TBWA, Saatchi & Saatchi, etc..
His work didn’t go unnoticed in the Netherlands either, where he directed a campaign for the Amsterdam agency KesselsKramer for the Dutch mobile phone operator Ben. In 2002 Toon received The Young Directors Award for this commercial at the annual ADCN. He has since shot commercials for EA Games, Duyvis, Lipton Ice Tea, KPN, Ikea, Telfort, The International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Planet Internet and many others. The Asics commercial he shot won a bronze and a silver award on the Cannes edition of 2005.
But Toon always continued doing other projects as well. And music has always been his first love. Not only did Toon direct numerous music videos for Belgian bands like The Sore Losers, Millionaire, Mon-O-Phone, El Guapo Stuntteam and Fence. He also photographed a lot of these bands. For instance, he shot the cover of the Sore Losers album and did the promotional photography for Hickey Underworld, Fence, Mad About Mountains, Mon-O-Phone, Vandal X and the Vermin Twins.
The music video "Back From The Grave" won the prize for best music video at the 2009 edition of the Belgian Shortfilmfestival "Leuven Kort", was shown at the bi-monthly BUG Music Video Festival in London and was selected for the Mirrorball section of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. More recently, Toon directed his first international music video for the infamous Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, resulting in a classic mini-horror movie that’s not meant for the weak of heart…
Since 2012, Toon got a taste of being onstage himself, as he joined The Sha-La-Lee’s as a bassplayer. This band, containing members of The Sore Losers, El Guapo Stuntteam, Evil Superstars, Millionaire and Noordkaap, plays a contagious mix of 60’s garage and classic rock. The Sha-La-Lee’s already supported international top-acts like The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Datsuns and The Rival Sons and have been coined a “cult supergroup” by the Belgian press. They are planning to release their first album in March 2014.
Toon’s long awaited shortfilm Perfect Drug had it’s premiere at the 2012 Leuven Kort Short Film Festival. Perfect Drug, best described as a mind boggling experience, created quite a buzz in the national press and has won the Grand Prize at the BIFF and the Meliès d’Argent at the Imagine Film Festival. The film now continues it’s succes abroad where it recently won the prize for “Weirdest Film” at the Knoxville Horror Filmfestival. So keep your eyes peeled for a screening near you..
Toon's work, being it his films or his photos, are characterised by a strong visual style. His work clearly refers to elements of popular culture like horror movies, sci-fi, 70's exploitation or television series. Toon likes images that are loud, colorful, larger than life and over-the-top. Toon tries to intigue the viewer, to capture his attention and more importantly show the viewer the way he likes to look at reality ...