The Unauthorized/Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers [2024]
The Broodthaers Society and KB45 [Art in Belgium since 1945], Ghent University are pleased to announce the roster for next year's series of exhibitions and events celebrating the centenary of Marcel Broodthaers. These artists and scholars represent a whole new generation of researchers engaged with the peripatetic Belgian artist's work.
As a whole, their interests already highlight an implicit body/object dichotomy in Broodthaers' oeuvre: the ways in which his use of film, humor, and words, as objects, relates to his literal embodiment of slapstick, gender, and anticolonialism. Most thrilling for the Broodthaers Society and KB45 is finding out how these ideas will interact with art discourses that are prevalent today and perhaps prescient regarding the year ahead.
Details for the 2024 exhibitions and events are forthcoming. For now, here are the twelve participants, synopses of their research, and links to their respective profiles and websites:
Participating Artists and Scholars
Caitlyn Au
Artist, Chicago
冬園 [Winter Garden], a site-specific installation inspired by the concept of décor, Chinese diaspora, and Marcel Broodthaers’ Un Jardin d’Hiver
Hannah Bruckmüller
Art historian and Assistant Professor, New Design University St. Pölten, Austria
A feminist reading of Broodthaers as a quintessential “man of letters”
Hilde D'haeyere
Artistic Docent, KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts), HOGENT
An analysis of Broodthaers’ relationship to slapstick comedy
Nico Dockx
Artist, Antwerp
A speculative analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, New York, in collaboration with Raf Wollaert
Ash Duhrkoop
PhD candidate, University of Virginia
An analysis of Broodthaers’ anticolonialism in relation to the Brussels World’s Fair and Broodthaers' artwork Le Problème Noir En Belgique
Carolin Meister
Professor, Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe
An analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, The Last Voyage, in relation to pre-cinematic devices and the specter of death
Michal B. Ron
Art historian and theoretician, Berlin
Broodthaer’s 100th birthday as Happening: a series of live events
Janna Schoenberger
Core Faculty Member, Amsterdam University College
An analysis of Broodthaers’ critical use of play and leisure in relation to West Coast conceptual art
Samuel Shapiro
PhD candidate, Princeton University
An exegesis of correspondence between Broodthaers and curator Kynaston McShine regarding a never-realized solo project at MoMA
Trevor Stark
Associate Professor, University of Calgary
An analysis of Broodthaers’ word/image play in relation to the death of Modern poetry and the transformation of words into objects into commodities
Margaux Van Uytvanck
PhD candidate, Université Libre de Brussels
An analysis of Broodthaers’ tangential relationship to Happenings and Jean Toche
Raf Wollaert
Doctoral Fellow, University of Antwerp
A speculative analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, New York, in collaboration with Nico Dockx
The peer review committee for The Unauthorized / Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers was comprised of Karima Boudou, curator, SMAK, Ghent; Wouter Davidts, professor, Ghent University; Sowon Kwon, artist, critic, and assistant professor, Graduate Program, Parsons The New School; Joe Scanlan, artist and director, The Broodthaers Society of America and professor at Princeton University; and Stefaan Vervoort, postdoctoral fellow, Ghent University.
The Unauthorized/Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers is being organized by Stefaan Vervoort, Wouter Davidts, and Joe Scanlan with the support of their respective institutions.
The image above is an embroidery patch from the NASA Apollo 11 space mission. The very first event at A379089, a project space cofounded in Antwerp by Isy Fiszman, Kasper König, and Marcel Broodthaers, among others, was a watch party for the lunar landing on July 20, 1969.
As a whole, their interests already highlight an implicit body/object dichotomy in Broodthaers' oeuvre: the ways in which his use of film, humor, and words, as objects, relates to his literal embodiment of slapstick, gender, and anticolonialism. Most thrilling for the Broodthaers Society and KB45 is finding out how these ideas will interact with art discourses that are prevalent today and perhaps prescient regarding the year ahead.
Details for the 2024 exhibitions and events are forthcoming. For now, here are the twelve participants, synopses of their research, and links to their respective profiles and websites:
Participating Artists and Scholars
Caitlyn Au
Artist, Chicago
冬園 [Winter Garden], a site-specific installation inspired by the concept of décor, Chinese diaspora, and Marcel Broodthaers’ Un Jardin d’Hiver
Hannah Bruckmüller
Art historian and Assistant Professor, New Design University St. Pölten, Austria
A feminist reading of Broodthaers as a quintessential “man of letters”
Hilde D'haeyere
Artistic Docent, KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts), HOGENT
An analysis of Broodthaers’ relationship to slapstick comedy
Nico Dockx
Artist, Antwerp
A speculative analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, New York, in collaboration with Raf Wollaert
Ash Duhrkoop
PhD candidate, University of Virginia
An analysis of Broodthaers’ anticolonialism in relation to the Brussels World’s Fair and Broodthaers' artwork Le Problème Noir En Belgique
Carolin Meister
Professor, Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe
An analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, The Last Voyage, in relation to pre-cinematic devices and the specter of death
Michal B. Ron
Art historian and theoretician, Berlin
Broodthaer’s 100th birthday as Happening: a series of live events
Janna Schoenberger
Core Faculty Member, Amsterdam University College
An analysis of Broodthaers’ critical use of play and leisure in relation to West Coast conceptual art
Samuel Shapiro
PhD candidate, Princeton University
An exegesis of correspondence between Broodthaers and curator Kynaston McShine regarding a never-realized solo project at MoMA
Trevor Stark
Associate Professor, University of Calgary
An analysis of Broodthaers’ word/image play in relation to the death of Modern poetry and the transformation of words into objects into commodities
Margaux Van Uytvanck
PhD candidate, Université Libre de Brussels
An analysis of Broodthaers’ tangential relationship to Happenings and Jean Toche
Raf Wollaert
Doctoral Fellow, University of Antwerp
A speculative analysis of Broodthaers’ unfinished film, New York, in collaboration with Nico Dockx
The peer review committee for The Unauthorized / Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers was comprised of Karima Boudou, curator, SMAK, Ghent; Wouter Davidts, professor, Ghent University; Sowon Kwon, artist, critic, and assistant professor, Graduate Program, Parsons The New School; Joe Scanlan, artist and director, The Broodthaers Society of America and professor at Princeton University; and Stefaan Vervoort, postdoctoral fellow, Ghent University.
The Unauthorized/Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers is being organized by Stefaan Vervoort, Wouter Davidts, and Joe Scanlan with the support of their respective institutions.
The image above is an embroidery patch from the NASA Apollo 11 space mission. The very first event at A379089, a project space cofounded in Antwerp by Isy Fiszman, Kasper König, and Marcel Broodthaers, among others, was a watch party for the lunar landing on July 20, 1969.