Marcel Broodthaers: poet, journalist, and workman on the construction site of Expo 58, Brussels, 1957. Image © Julien Coulommier, courtesy of Jan and Tarri Coulommier.
Marcel Broodthaers, Monument Public no. 4, 1963. Printed cardboard box, paper, egg cartons, eggshells, tin can, plastic, metal, wood, plaster. © The Estate of Marcel Broodthaers, image used without permission.
The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers
CIVA
Rue de l'Ermitage 55
1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
Friday, March 14
Free with registration
The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to share part II of our collaboration with Ghent University and its research group KB45, Art in Belgium since 1945. The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers, a one-day conference featuring new scholarship by six international curators and scholars, will take place at CIVA, the Center for Information, Documentation, and Exhibitions on Architecture, the City, and Urban Planning. The conference has been organized by Stefaan Vervoort in support of an exhibition he has organized through CIVA's Researcher in Residence program.
Titled Marcel Broodthaers: The Architect is Absent, the exhibition explores Broodthaers’ engagement with architecture, design, and urban renewal between 1957 and 1967. During this decade Broodthaers took up journalism and photography, tried his hand at construction work, and established the key orientations for his emerging practice as an artist. The exhibition's focal point is Monument Public no. 4 (1963)—Broodthaers’ very first exhibited artwork. From this central "observation tower," so to speak, the show will examine Broodthaers' formal and political relationship to the modernization of postwar Brussels. Whereas Broodthaers’ art practice is typically understood as a transition from poetry to art-making, from word to image, The Architect is Absent will consider his visceral affinity for architecture as well.
The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers will offer new perspectives on his work and practice: historically, theoretically, thematically, and methodologically. Contributors will present material related to Broodthaers' beginnings as a visual artist and the development of his career, as well as new archival discoveries of his connections to architectural theory, sociology, psychiatry, and critiques of capitalism. The conference schedule will be as follows:
FRIDAY, MARCH 14
14:00-14:20
Welcome by CIVA director Nikolaus Hirsch and introduction by Stefaan Vervoort
14:20-15:00
JANNA SCHOENBERGER, Amsterdam University College
"Marcel Broodthaers and Ambivalence: Pinball, Leisure, and Art"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan, Princeton University
15:00-15:40
STEFAAN VERVOORT, Ghent University
"Anarchism by the Brick: Marcel Broodthaers, Provo, and Happenings in Belgium, c. 1966"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan
15:40-16:40
Tour of the exhibition
16:40-17:20
DIRK SNAUWAERT, Director of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels
"Is La plume de l’ange (1974), the Work in Mia and Martin Visser’s collection, la chambre érotique?"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts, Ghent University
17:20-18:00
ANNA DEZEUZE, Beaux-Arts de Marseille
"Shifting Connections: Constellations and Monomania in Marcel Broodthaers’ Décors (1974-75)"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts
18:00-18:40
Break
18:40-19:20
KOEN BRAMS, Ghent University
"À MTL ou à BCD: On Marcel Broodthaers’ Inaugural Exhibition at MTL, Brussels (1970)"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan
19:20-20:00
TREVOR STARK, University of Calgary
"There Are No Primary Structures (Except, Perhaps, Narcissism): On Broodthaers’ Initials"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts
* * *
The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers has been organized by Stefaan Vervoort in collaboration with KB45 (Art in Belgium Since 1945), a multidisciplinary research group at Ghent University cofounded with Wouter Davidts. It is made possible with the generous support of Ghent University; CIVA, Brussels; the Flemish Community Commission (VGC); and the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Study of the Fine Arts, Chicago.
Part I of The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers was a two-day conference titled Marcel Broodthaers and America organized by Joe Scanlan at Princeton University in October 2024. It was made possible by the Humanities Council; the Department of Art & Archaeology; the University Committee for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Visual Arts Program, Lewis Center for the Arts.
Rue de l'Ermitage 55
1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
Friday, March 14
Free with registration
The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to share part II of our collaboration with Ghent University and its research group KB45, Art in Belgium since 1945. The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers, a one-day conference featuring new scholarship by six international curators and scholars, will take place at CIVA, the Center for Information, Documentation, and Exhibitions on Architecture, the City, and Urban Planning. The conference has been organized by Stefaan Vervoort in support of an exhibition he has organized through CIVA's Researcher in Residence program.
Titled Marcel Broodthaers: The Architect is Absent, the exhibition explores Broodthaers’ engagement with architecture, design, and urban renewal between 1957 and 1967. During this decade Broodthaers took up journalism and photography, tried his hand at construction work, and established the key orientations for his emerging practice as an artist. The exhibition's focal point is Monument Public no. 4 (1963)—Broodthaers’ very first exhibited artwork. From this central "observation tower," so to speak, the show will examine Broodthaers' formal and political relationship to the modernization of postwar Brussels. Whereas Broodthaers’ art practice is typically understood as a transition from poetry to art-making, from word to image, The Architect is Absent will consider his visceral affinity for architecture as well.
The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers will offer new perspectives on his work and practice: historically, theoretically, thematically, and methodologically. Contributors will present material related to Broodthaers' beginnings as a visual artist and the development of his career, as well as new archival discoveries of his connections to architectural theory, sociology, psychiatry, and critiques of capitalism. The conference schedule will be as follows:
FRIDAY, MARCH 14
14:00-14:20
Welcome by CIVA director Nikolaus Hirsch and introduction by Stefaan Vervoort
14:20-15:00
JANNA SCHOENBERGER, Amsterdam University College
"Marcel Broodthaers and Ambivalence: Pinball, Leisure, and Art"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan, Princeton University
15:00-15:40
STEFAAN VERVOORT, Ghent University
"Anarchism by the Brick: Marcel Broodthaers, Provo, and Happenings in Belgium, c. 1966"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan
15:40-16:40
Tour of the exhibition
16:40-17:20
DIRK SNAUWAERT, Director of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels
"Is La plume de l’ange (1974), the Work in Mia and Martin Visser’s collection, la chambre érotique?"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts, Ghent University
17:20-18:00
ANNA DEZEUZE, Beaux-Arts de Marseille
"Shifting Connections: Constellations and Monomania in Marcel Broodthaers’ Décors (1974-75)"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts
18:00-18:40
Break
18:40-19:20
KOEN BRAMS, Ghent University
"À MTL ou à BCD: On Marcel Broodthaers’ Inaugural Exhibition at MTL, Brussels (1970)"
Respondent: Joe Scanlan
19:20-20:00
TREVOR STARK, University of Calgary
"There Are No Primary Structures (Except, Perhaps, Narcissism): On Broodthaers’ Initials"
Respondent: Wouter Davidts
* * *
The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers has been organized by Stefaan Vervoort in collaboration with KB45 (Art in Belgium Since 1945), a multidisciplinary research group at Ghent University cofounded with Wouter Davidts. It is made possible with the generous support of Ghent University; CIVA, Brussels; the Flemish Community Commission (VGC); and the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Study of the Fine Arts, Chicago.
Part I of The Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers was a two-day conference titled Marcel Broodthaers and America organized by Joe Scanlan at Princeton University in October 2024. It was made possible by the Humanities Council; the Department of Art & Archaeology; the University Committee for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Visual Arts Program, Lewis Center for the Arts.