About The Mental Masonry Lab
Inaugurated in Berlin in 2014, The Mental Masonry Lab is the project of two artists, Mira Sanders and Cédric Noël. TMML is a dynamic collective fostering action and reflection in urban contexts, bringing together artists, designers, writers, scientists and passers-by.
Central to TMML’s ethos is a fascination with residue, a substance both tangible and symbolic, existing on the fringes of control. Navigating the threshold between disappearance and manifestation,
TMML engages in explorations across urban landscapes, from streets to museums, gathering inspiration for spatial experiments and public encounters. Through media such as drawing, writing and exhibitions, TMML shares its discoveries and insights, transcending boundaries and inspiring curiosity. From Berlin to Brussels, TMML’s journey continues, shaping the artistic landscape along the way.
Mira Sanders [BE]
Mira Sanders (°1973) studied Fine Arts at Sint-Lukas Brussels and is lecturer / researcher at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture Campus Sint-Lucas Brussels/Ghent. Her oeuvre consists of video works, drawings and installations, in which a constant quest emerges for the places, people and stories they contain. Mira Sanders’ current work focuses on how objects, people or events in physical spaces and on the actual terrain ‘inhabit’ place. Her visual language consists of meticulous lines, markings, borders, routes, maps, plans and drawings that describe, read spaces, and outline imaginary journeys in an attempt to surpass the limits of language.
In 2007 she was one of the laureates of the Young Belgian Painting Award. Her work has been shown, among other places, Galerie VidalCuglietta (Brussels), Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris), ARGOS centre for art and media (Brussels), MDAC Rochechouart (Rochechouart), BOZAR (Brussels), deSingel (Antwerp), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (Deurle), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Huize Frankendael (Amsterdam) and CEAC (Xiamen).
Cédric Noël [FR]
Cédric Noël (°1978, Argenteuil FR; lives and works in Brussels) explores the relationship between representation, brain and territory, through meticulous researches and collaborations with scientists, curious amateurs and artists. From field surveys that combine fiction and reality to the point of confusion, he develops works (video, text, installation), both authentic and bizarre, that rely on participation in the activation of the work. His works on paper, while playing with the gap between the reduction of means and the degree zero of the act of drawing, call for the expression of an interiority, through repetition and random encounters.
Art studies at La Villa Arson (Nice FR) and Laureat of the HISK (Antwerp BE) in 2005. Exhibitions at BOZAR (Brussels BE), ERBAN (Nantes FR), CAC (Vilnius LT), MUHKA (Antwerp BE), Museum of Architecture (Tallinn EST), VAI De Singel (Antwerp BE), Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem NL), WIELS (Brussels BE), Botanique Museum (Brussels BE). Prizes AON Prijs Beeldende Kunst 2006, Médiatine 2006, Emile et Stephy Langui de la Jeune Peinture Belge 2007. Research grant FNRS-FRArt 2019.