crox 145, BASICS 2 - June 2005.
crox 166, ZENPUNK, solo project - February 2006.
crox 145-II, sequel of BASICS 2 in Abbey Maagdendale.
croxcard NR 37, TIP TOP (2005). Release May 2006.
crox 188, BRAINBOX unit 2 and unit 7 (2006). Trio with Anton Cotteleer and Stijn Van Dorpe.
VERZAMELWOEDE, project in Abbey Maagdendale - April 2007.
Earliest crox-Leusism is the performance of Dead Marcel in 1997 at the orgy of the opening night of crox 67. Dead Marcel was a band with Michaël Borremans guitar, Leus on sax and one Verberdt on drums. Hans van Heirseele has a short acte de presence.
Leus' first step into crox territory as a visual artist is in 2005, half decennium later. He participates in the first edition of BASICS 2. Previously he was in the program of EL; after that, a nomination for the Provinciale Prijs Oost-Vlaanderen and a project in galerij Foncke. For BASICS 2, first edition, Leus frames the theft of an artwork. Specifically he puts an in situ thing at the lower shelf of one of the racks, shoots pictures of the artwork, removes everything and creates another work indicating the disappearance of the objects.
The work, a manual.
Next is a solo project (February 2006). Previous to his second appearance is a solo in galery Foncke. Leus' project at Foncke's hardly bears comparison with the crox work. The artist tackles situations and events directly.
Later on Nicolas Leus participates in the sequel of BASICS 2. Approximately at the same time crox card NR 37 is released.
End 2006 he is one of 18 artists in the first BRAINBOX track.With Anton Cotteleer and Stijn Van Dorpe he completes the first and seventh unit.
Verzamelwoede. Project in collaboration with DKO Oudenaarde and C.O.R.N.E.L.I.A., April 2007. Same location as the sequel to BASICS 2.
Nicolas presents 8 specimina of his collections - each composed of 8 items:
-picture postcards of the North sea
-picture postcards of parks
-'zwartebeertjes' art pocket books, among others on Vermeer, Van Gogh, Renoir, Titiaan
-Modiano folios with drawings by Le Tann
-orange books (erotism)
-Paris books
-net structurs (arcelations)
-different colours of fishing filament (jetsam?)
-shards of plastic (flotsam!)
-soap leftovers or sea prestes (zeepresten)
-plastic bags
-business cards offering a choice of manager titles
-recycled combination of lines on a white background
-ancient girly magazines
next to this series there is a box with Ghent parks, a green book of sentences from literare having the word green in them (with corrections in red) and a cd with a lexicon read out loud.
All in all 17 collections.