Mark Burghgraeve

About Mark Burghgraeve

Mark Hélèné Joseph Burghgraeve was born in 1961.

From early age he was intrigued by Science and Mechanics. His grandfather built radio's during WWII to listen to the Alies on BBC and had an electronic atelier in his attic, where all the connectors were the same. A lamp had the same connector as a loudspeaker. One had to know his wires there, not to plug blow up a speaker.
His grandmother was a singer at the choir of the Royal Opera and started teaching Yoga on later age. Grandfather on mother's side was a champion fighter and later became a bouncer at the city hall of Antwerp.
His parents both had full-time jobs and a bad mariage. Father was an audiophile but also an alcoholic. It wasn't a "warm" family. A social one to the outside world, but cold and distanced from each other, rational, struggling to keep up during the 70-ties crisis.
He went to catholic & public schools., were he was always seen as a freak, a rebel, to smart for his own good. As a child, he escaped the domestic stress with drawing and later with martial arts and making recordings on a reel-to-reel tapedeck he got from his father after an upgrade to the 8-track deck in the Hi-Fi stereo furniture downstairs.
When his parents separated in the late 70-ties, he had already left home and studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

To pay for the rent and his studies, he was a bouncer at the infamous club "Zazou" and the new-wave dancing "Plaza" in Antwerp. He was also a photo & fashion model himself.
He's a multimedia artist and graphic-, video- & sound-designer with experience in 2D and 3D computer graphics, sound & light engineering and (expired link) young age, he tampered with electronics. His first "performances" were feedback patches on a broken amp, combined with self made tape effects. After hearing Klaus Schutze on the radio he got his first synth: a Korg MS10, soon followed by MS20, an SQ10 Sequencer, and a VC10 Vocoder. Inspired by Kraftwerk, Human League, Fad Gadget, Tubeway Army, The Residents, Der Plan and more from the late 70's, he created (expired link) & (expired link). during the eighties he started with Somnambulist, in the new Millennium he formed KOYT!
With minimal resources and the support of his friend, Stefan van Elsen, they released cassettes on "Central Tapes" , a cassette label with limited editions. He constructed the original KLINIK together with Marc Verhaeghen and Guy Drieghe D, based on a theater play "Kaspar Hauser" he acted in by Guy Cassiers at Club Moral.
Mark met Guy Cassiers during the AKT play "Geruchten" where he was actor/dancer. He joined him to act in "Kasper". Later, he became his light & sound engineer for the plays "Tristan", "De Cementen Tuin" & "Sneeuw" and at performances of Guy with Club Moral and other like the "Hobospelen". He produced the album "Daidalus" from the play with the same name. He also volunteered as a light & sound technician at "Paljas", a private theater, run by Gerd De Ley.
He collaborated with Jan Fabre for the installation "Homo Faber". Worked with Niki Mono, Bill Leeb, Mike Shelter, Brainpilot & Trans 4-m with Stefan Van Elsen, KLINIK, Insekt, Vomito Negro, For Greater Good, Dark Poem, Hybryds, Les Boufons Tristes with Peter Geysels, Grasjas and other bands and as computer graphics artist or live technician and musician.
He made soundscapes & music and did some computer programming for film, theatre & dance productions with Alex Van Geet, Miss Kiran Singh, Elaine Shipman, Steven Daniels, Tone Brulin, Jef Cassiers, Guy Cassiers, John Gilbert Colman, Eric Joris & Crew with "KAUFHAUS INFERNO", Club Moral's "Blanco", Stef Viane "Schaduwen", Luk Perceval & de Blauwe Maandag Companie for "De Meeuw" and "Pinokio", De Nieuwe Danserije, Jan Gruyaert...
He made artwork for Jan Fabre, Wim Delvoye, Wessel-Di-Wesseli, KasjaNoova, Peter Wynen...
In 1997, he presented a virtual world, based on a dodecahedron at MuHKA during the "Pythia meets Pythagoras" exhibition together with his wife KasjaNoova. Later he did her computer stuff and stayed involved in her work after they divorced.
He worked as one of the first computer graphics artists in Belgium at Diabolo cv. (in fact, there were two of us) and created presentations for Quick, GB-Inno-BM, Agfa Gevaert, Keyware, Fabrimetal magazine, Trends magazine. Later made illustrations for some newspapers like "Eurosail", an illustration covering the whole middle page of several newspapers and a 3d illustration "death scene of the pope" for De Morgen.
He became graphic designer for Atacom with Guy Drieghe D., Zero with Alain Oosterlinck & Lieven Van Den Abeele, Graphic Zoo & Jupiter graphics and was a teacher in 2D micro-montage & 3D modeling, texturing & animating at HIGRO/KISP in Ghent.
Mark & Eric Lorillier started "VIA", a weekly cultural agenda on 52 U-matic players at different public places in Antwerp, with the help of Lu Van Orshoven (VidiSquare)
For a brief moment he worked at Kreon, where he installed & programmed a 2D scan-plan-print-workflow in MiniCad, with a library of their database connected products as well as the technical & artistic 2D & 3D light implant simulation.
He designed and programmed interactive presentations for VidiSquare.
For instance the "DataNews Year Awards". 3D animations for Aquarius (Coca Cola company), Xtreme Sports Ware and Microsoft Messenger with Eric Joris.
Between 1995 and 2012 he became graphic designer at WCC ZuiderPersHuis.
KOYT! Was formed & deformed in 2005.
(expired link) and Somnambulist are projects starting from the late 70ties and early 80ties of whom in May 2007 a split 7" was released on Vinyl by the American Minimal Wave label.

In 2011, Somnambulist "the Withered Land" was released on Vinyl on the Belgian Walhalla Records label.
He appeared on several compilations from mainly Walhalla and KK records.
On Audio Cassettes mainly by Central Tapes & Club Moral.

In 2019 the Double Album " Things I was due to forget - (expired link) & (expired link). from 1979 to 2005" came out on the French label Nuit et Brouillard, a double album on White Vinyl and on CD.
Recently, he has also joined forces with Mark Verhaeghen again to "Reset" the KLINIK and is the founder of The House of the Thepaphone, a collective of independent artists ().
He is the co-founder of and web designer/builder for Math Artists (MAF), now re-baptised as the Modern Art Factory (MAF).

On 2 november 2020, he did a 1 hour Live Stream on TV Centraal during lock-down, the 2nd COVID19-Wave, Code Red in Belgium, so without any audience. He donated his fee to “de Studio” as a thanks for the work they’ve done to make this possible and to compensate for the missing (& paying) audience.

M. performs on rare occasions ( ) and makes digital artwork which he occasionally shows at exhibitions (for instance MAF, Open Ateliers & the Backyard house) and makes artwork on demand, and is creator and owner of the website "Myrddin's Oracle".
In 2023, his music was used in the television series "1985" on Belgian TV (VRT max) and got to n°1 with "The Verdict" and n°2 with "The Cold Wash" in the N1M Charts for Belgian Electronica.