The art duo Leefwerk came into existence at the initiative of Niels Coppens and Roman Luterbacher. Both creative dwellers shared a deep long interest in shaping urban space and redefining its purpose by generating action and instigating interaction. Their personal journeys along the margins of art and culture in Brussels, Belgium, and Bienne, Switzerland, gave rise to one fundamental lesson: that the highest transformative potential and creative freedom lies in the occupation of vacancy - forgotten or even unwanted spaces. Regenerating barren ground in the public landscape, either through community-based projects or far-out rave parties, laid the foundation of their artistic expressions. After launching an art intervention at Documenta 14 and building spontaneous action zones with the Belgian organization Toestand in abandoned spaces all over Europe, the two found themselves at a crossroads between art and action, idea and politics, life and work.

The amalgam of previous experiences and influences provided a feeding ground for new artistic manifestation through Leefwerk. While earlier work focused on social experiments in vacancy, Leefwerk altered the focus to space as a piece of art in itself, though never losing sight of its social and reactivating potential. By provoking curiosity, Leefwerk interventions attempt to connect people within and around a given space. It is an artistic experiment with a social outcome, no longer the other way around. Leefwerk literally translates as 'life' and 'work' in Flemish. Two notions that fully conceptualize what the duo stands for: namely the blurring lines between life and work, as moving parts intertwined in space and time.

A key element in Niels and Roman's interpretation of Leefwerk lies in their relationship with context and uncertainty. Leefwerk projects essentially take place in the unknown, beyond the social and cultural comfort zones of the artists. It is in fact the unknown that makes the space interesting and inspiring. For Niels and Roman, context and all its uncertainties guide the conceptualisation of each intervention. This approach should not be considered as entirely deliberate, nor as a necessity to overcome undesired circumstances - it is quite simply about facing a reality that is ingrained in the nature of the work. It is the roadmap for experimentation around existential questions of life and work, from which the two artists attempt to articulate societal and political critique. As long as topics feel right and relevant, they merit time and space.

Just as in life itself, Leefwerk interventions follow a cyclical process, bringing together creation, exposition and deconstruction in one and the same space. Central to this philosophy lies the unfaltering, compelling need to challenge function through experiment. Leefwerk criticises the static, often sterile interpretation of space through a continuous search of capturing the actual zeitgeist. It intends to transform space into artistic expression by questioning the endless rules involved in the use of space. Roman and Niels share the fundamental belief that space should be approached as a blank sheet of paper; as something that fully allows to discard function after consumption. This cycle provides artistic opportunities to reintroduce real consumption and criticise the societal phenomenon for what it has become.