The Collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character
The character of a collection reflected the current priorities of the M HKA collection: the evaluation of Antwerp’s avant-garde tradition; the exploration of the new world order with multiple hubs; the discussion about the former types of images; the articulation of the importance of the performative character and socially engaged dimension of contemporary art.
The character of the collection was an attempt to revisit our collection after 25 years of spontaneous creativity: views expressed by powerful personalities, opportunities that presented themselves, restrictions that spawned innovative solutions.
The key to the character sketch of our collection was the ensemble: a coherent group of works, both in terms of quantity and quality, was interesting enough to be seen as more than a number or series of works.
This exhibition and the accompanying book presented some 20 ensembles that helped us to understand the collection of the M HKA. Some of the ensembles consisted of work by prominent Flemish artists such as Vaast Colson, Luc Deleu, Jan Fabre, Show Tersas, Luc Tuymans and Panamarenko. M HKA has major ensembles of artists from other parts of the world, including James Lee Byars, Jimmie Durham, C.K. Rajan and a number of artists from the former Soviet Union, India, China and North Africa. Alse there are other types of ensembles, such as the Vrielynck Collection, with items from the history of cinema, as well as the archives from the 1970s of Antwerp’s International Cultural Centre (ICC).
Items
Paul De Vree is a “technician” of the consciousness; author of poesia visiva. He grasps important things, thoughts and words in images. This image is important as form but not as material. Through these linguistic articulations and visualization in drawings, paintings photographs and magazines the audience can sense a specific stake in the writing behind the word art and experience the condensation of a deeper reflection.
Project for Sky-Writing (planche n°1), 1971
Ed. Hartmut Kaminski, Düsseldorf Part of the series (5 in one portfolio and 5 separate ones). Images of the sky + tekst like Love =U.f.o. and 1666 km/h. Texts that could have been written in the sky by an airplane.
Tonight We Escape from New York, 1977
Tonight We Escape From New York was part of another audio-installation, originally shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The large-scale, white-on-black chalk drawing shows a rope ladder to be installed in the museum with four speakers alongside it; through these speakers fragments of a racist dialogue were broadcast, sounding as if they rose and fell along the ladder.
Waarschuwing: Kijken verlangt engagement [Warning: Perception requires involvement], 2012
M HKA participated in the ongoing project On Translation: Warning, and put together a small commitee to talk about the best Flemish translation of the sentence "Warning: Perception requires involvement". We decided on "Waarschuwing: Kijken verlangt engagement" and agreed with Antoni Muntadas to spread a sticker version during the exhibition "Antoni - Muntadas - Alles is politiek".