Ensemble

Institutions

 

The artistic activities of Jef Lambrecht are spread over various 'institutions' – of which some lasted longer than others, had more weight and importance in the overall oeuvre and can be seen as distinctive projects serving different goals, but often also lumped together so as to make a strict delineation impossible – they also roughly coincide, though not congruently, with various identities used... and to make matters even more interesting, there are various players (members, collaborators, contributors) involved, creating a multifarious view and interpretation.

 

The most well-known publicly is the 'Belgian Institute for World Affairs' (BIWA) founded together with colleague-journalist Karel Schoetens and spanning a period of more or less ten years from 1982 tot 1992, with a sort of wobble/re-formultaion in 1985/1988(the action 'Leerstoel Van Dijk' in the Rubenshuis was the end of 'Belgian Institute for World Affairs' and beginning of 'Novum Belgium' (Nova Belgica) but then BIWA re-emerged in 1988 with the 'Déclaration de Dependance' as well as various spin-offs or splinters such as the “dept. EARth” - which in turn would lead a separate existence...

 

From here we can also follow the inception of the 'Saint Nicholas Chapter' (SNC) modelled on the Saint Nicholas Society of New York, and the “Peter Minuit Foundation' (PMF) which was the main vehicle to process against the mighty Peter Stuyvesant group... any of these entities could combine and become short-lived conglomerates – such as for example the combination of 'Novum Belgium' and the 'Peter Minuit Foundation' issuing a stock to finance the re-purchase of Manhattan island... together with another player – and also issuing 'Saint Nicholas Certificates' in another instance...

 

Borrowed Identities were also fair game... for the 'canonization of Vincent van Gogh' in 1990, Jef recussitated the near-forgotten figure of “The Pope of Halensee” created by Paul van Ostaijen and the Jespers brothers to excommunicate Paul Joostens from their 'church' in the 1920's ...

 

Here we will attempt to illustrate each of these entities while keeping in mind that such an endeavour can only be a partial view – and the term 'institution' might include variants such as (the 'Belgian Peoples Party / Belgische Volkspartei', (BVP/PPB) the 'Ministry of Beauty' or the metaphysical storage facility 'Intercontinentaal Entrepot' – as well as the links these may have with exhibition and publishing activities...

 

These institutions can sometimes be identified and circumscribed by a specific 'campaign' of sorts – such as the Peter Minuit Foundation which was primarily concerned with the battle against Peter Stuyvesant tobacco and to buy Manhattan back for the Belgians... but usually it's more complex than that.