‘11937 km’ refers to the distance of the journey Verkaeren undertook through Argentina after he graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Its main goal was to study ways of transcending the stereotypical representations of landscapes. Verkaeren, already known as an ‘open-air’ artist, observed that the setting in which he paints often influences the painting itself. He was determined to take this phenomenon to the extreme. Thanks to the advice of an acquaintance, he ended up in South America, where he travelled all by himself in a shabby Fiat Fiorino packed with canvases. He endured the unpaved roads of the Route National 40, from the borders of Bolivia all the way to Patagonia. The paintings created from this road trip reflect landscapes over landscapes, in which Verkaeren breaks through the static nature of landscape painting.

After Verkaeren's return, the works were shown at CASSTEL, the Antwerp based art space run by Carla Arocha, Stéphane Schraenen and Luc Tuymans. It was Verkaeren's first extensive solo exhibition.

‘Heat, wind and cold keeping me company... The painting becomes more and more a summary of the time I spent in the landscape. I have to learn to accept failures, the canvas becomes a witness of the countless efforts of trying all over again’ -Nils Verkaeren