Routine, Lovely Routine

Images and words are the medium of Belgian artist Peter de Potter, who has been collaborating with Raf Simons for 10 years and has been working independently ever since. When asked to share what he considers avant-garde, de Potter’s answer was as unconventional as the topic itself: Routine. Instead of pondering what might be forward thinking, de Potter suggests to take a step back and give new meaning to things we already know – which is a new idea itself:

“Nowadays there seems to be a negative ring to routine (the connotation with boredom or repetition) - while in fact I think it's more valuable than the hectic, superficial way of thinking of the internet age - where thoughts and ideas have only a five minute lifespan. You need routine to get good at something - talent comes naturally but it needs shaping up. Next to that, there's a natural spiritual aspect to routine. When you make the decision to look at daily life as a series of important routines, it becomes a beautiful thing.

Instead of taking every gesture, every practice for granted, you can start investigating them, why and how you do them. People often forget that the things they do in an instinctive, spontaneous way are the things that say the most about them as human beings. In that way, our routines hold the promise of new ideas. When we award them with a different, more emotional and personal meaning, they can become very powerful. Routine can become your companion, your guide, your compass.”
 

More of Peter's work can be found here: I am an Image-Machine and Angelic Starts
 

Editorial Lead Kitty Bolhoefer / Art Direction Peter de Potter / Filming & Photos Fridolin Schoepper / Editing Konterfei