For every image I want to create, I have to perform. I have to put my own body to its limits and I have to think about these limits when creating these images.

This is the reason why I work with my own body: I know its limits and language I can use, so that way I can embody the emotions I want to bring in the piece. Depending on the medium of the image I have in mind, I can be the photographer, the sculptor or the video-artist...but I always will be the performing-artist performing to create the image...Whether it is live in front of an audience, for camera, video or being stuck in a plaster moulding for several hours to create a sculpture.

My physical actions needed to create these images, will always make me the performer...but the medium will decide that I can also be something else. When I perform my body becomes an object that I can use to create an image.

Niko Raes