About
Born in 1993 in Brussels, where he lives and works, Soyan Issa initially worked in the construction and industrial sectors before turning to art. This background continues to inform his approach to materials, structures and processes of assembly. He graduated with highest honours from the École de recherche graphique (ERG) in 2026 and was awarded the Moonens Foundation Prize the same year. In 2025, he furthered his research at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie (ENSP) in Arles. His practice also includes a collaboration with dancer and choreographer Elsa Tagawa for her solo Chair vive (2024–25), as well as the Dior Art of Colour Prize (2023) and an exhibition at Luma Arles during the Rencontres de la Photographie.
His practice explores technologies of visibility — screens, images, surfaces and infrastructures — and the ways in which they shape our gaze and experience of the world. Working across sculpture, installation, video, sound and image, he salvages, dismantles, fragments and rearranges technical objects, technological waste and industrial materials. Through these gestures, he shifts their original functions and brings to the surface what is usually concealed behind the fluidity of interfaces.
The screen becomes a membrane akin to skin: a surface that reveals and conceals, exposes and protects. His fragmented and unstable forms reflect, distort and shift with light, movement and the viewer’s position. Between smoothness and roughness, seduction and unease, the visible and its reverse, his work seeks to reveal the structures that silently shape our perception.
Exhibitions
2026 : The eye is not satisfied with Blan/ckness, Erg Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2025 : Sur la piste du Marsupilami, Group Show, Brussels, Belgium
2025 : Mais pour qui la pierre se prend-elle ? : Group Show, Les rencontres de la photographies, Musée départementale Arles Antique, Arles, France
2025 : WIP #25 : Group Show, ENSP, Arles, France
2024 : Artist Print XI, Organised by JAP, Maisons des Arts de Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium
2023 : The art of Color Dior : Group Show, Fondation Luma, Arles, France
2023 : Babioles et trésors : Group Show, La Maison du Livre, Brussels, Belgium
2022 : MÊME MÊME : Group Show, Le Jacques Franck, Brussels, Belgium
2022 : Pharm’Atlas : Group Show with Antoine Mayer and Emile Barret, Brussels, Belgium
2021 : Barococo : Group show, Erg Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Collaborations
2025 : Chair vive by Elsa Tagawa : Les Brigittines, Brussels, Belgium
2025 : Iter by Magdalaine Hodebourg
Awards & Grants
2026 : Winner, Laurent Moonens price
2023 : Lauréats, The art of Color Dior
Residence
2026-2027 : Fondation Moonens, Brussels, Belgium
2025 : WAKA Studio, Art, Éducation, Recherche et Société, Njombé-Penja, Cameroon
Education
2024-2025 ENSP Ecole nationale supérieur de la photographie, Arles, France
2021-2024 Bachelor’s degree in Plastic, Visual and Spatial Arts - Photography, école de recherche graphique, Brussels, Belgium (with Great Distinction)