M HKA Ensembles

In 2013 the collection was reinforced by contributions from the international avant-garde active in our region in the Sixties and Seventies, with emphasis on performance and social critique. One example was the collection's expansion - following on from the exhibition ‘Kunst uit Antwerpen 1958-1962’ - with a remake of the installation Groentenkisten (Vegetable Crates) by celebrated Dutch artist Jan Henderikse. From Cherica Convents, the museum acquired screening rights for a documentary film about the Gordon Matta-Clark project Jacob’s Ladder. Croatian artist Ivan Kožarić gifted the museum some ten graphic works and silkscreen prints to supplement other acquisitions to amplify the ensemble. Further, the small aggregate of works around concrete and visual poetry was this year extended with the 5 first feature-length films by the Italian artist Sarenco.

Also in 2013, artworks were acquired issuing from more recent artists who have picked up the avant-garde torch for the succeeding generation. In collaboration with Guillaume Bijl, in 2013 the museum further extended the ensemble with elaborated scripts in word and image, known as Behandelingen (Treatments). These works form the basis for Bijl's later 'transformation-installations'. As well, the ensemble of the young artist Vaast Colson was further elaborated with a number of smaller works, editions and multiples. On the occasion of the presentation The Character of a Collection, he performed his piece To retitle an object daily during the course of a show. Every day of the month, Colson appointed an ordinary object - this time a merchandising 'Mickey-mouse' figure from the Vrielynck Collection - with a fresh title. The collection of art transitioning after the neo-avant-garde era in Flanders into a sophisticated inquiry into the nature of the image itself, is further enhanced in terms of key figures as well as more recent developments. From Tuymans, the ensemble editions have been supplemented by a number of graphic works. Claerbout's ensemble, too, is enriched by the acquisition of 3 drawings. The museum has also been able to acquire work from a younger homegrown artist, namely Rinus Van De Velde, who equally addresses questions to do with the status of the image proper.

In 2013, we could not pass by the opportunity to acquire an important piece from the celebrated Peruvian artist Teresa Burga. The installation Autorretrato. Estrectura. Informe, 9.6.72 was Teresa Burga's most important exhibition from the decade of the Seventies. In this wide-ranging project, Burga uses her own body to medically map herself. It consists of drawings of her profile and photographs of her face, a heart film and a light indicating her cardiac function as well as a biochemical blood analysis. Despite the fact that the project was greeted with much skepticism in Lima, it is undoubtedly one of the most important artistic endeavors from this period. Autorretrato was (and is) not only an ironic reflection on the traditional idea of the self-portrait, but also comprises a critique of processes intended to 'normalize' the individual. (Miguel A. López, exhibition flyer "Teresa Burga", Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, 2012).

From the recently deceased artist Allan Sekula, the museum has acquired the singular installation The Dockers’ Museum, a piece previously mounted in the 2012 exhibition Ship of Fools and of which the museum had already been partial owner since 2011. This installation is a seminal aggregate of small objects collected by Sekula that offers particular insight into the fundamental position of seafarers and dockers. These collected 'objects' are not construed as artworks, but they do contextualize Sekula's photography and provide the thematic thread for Sekula's constant work of collecting. Thanks to the Masterpiece Fund of the Flemish Community, in 2012 the Flemish Government acquired the Panamarenko Archive, in turn gifted to the M HKA for conservation in 2013. In addition, the museum also acquired a number of smaller works, editions and multiples from a variety of artists.

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