Guillaume Slizewicz is a Belgian designer based in Brussels. He creates bespoke objects and installations using electronics, code and digital fabrication methods. He often works in collectives such as Algolit, Anaïs Berck or Tropozone. He is a guest lecturer at LUCA School of Arts. His work has been presented in the Design Museum Ghent, Le Pavillon in Namur, IXDM in Basel, BioArt Labs in Eindhoven, and the Gallery Fake/Authentic in Milan.

The Wolpertinger is a mythological creature, in the form of a hunting trophy, half bark beetle and half deer. Humorous yet thought-provoking, it portrays the danger—seriously exacerbated by climate change—posed to forests by the bark beetle. Craftsman Thomas Rauch has sculpted the three trophies from Norwegian spruce—a tree extremely susceptible to bark beetles. The antlers, made from oak branches, were sand blasted to enhance their natural texture. The ‘Wolpertinger’ have been charred with the japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban. Each degree of charring corresponds to a specific year’s intensity of beetle infestation. Charring the wood protects the wood from rain and sun and also accentuates the beauty of the grain, creating a striking contrast between the darkened surface and the underlying wood.