Hugo Roelandt — The End Is a New Beginning

Event

M HKA, Antwerp

14 February 2025 - 25 May 2025

Hugo Roelandt (Aalst, 1950–Antwerp, 2015) was a versatile artist: at various times a performer, installation artist, video artist and photographer. He was highly influential in Antwerp. Throughout his career, which began in the 70s, Roelandt reflected critically on traditional notions of art, believing art should echo the complexities of contemporary life and societal issues rather than adhere to aesthetic orthodoxy. Key themes in his practice remain deeply relevant today, including body image and gender roles, automation, and the bourgeois nature of the artistic field. In the 80s, Roelandt became known as an innovative performance artist, developing the concept of ‘post performance’. In this time of key developments in postmodern philosophy as well as research in the field of artificial intelligence in Belgium, post performance was a departure from traditional performance. Roelandt’s approach distanced the artist’s body from the live artwork, creating systematic scenarios which the artist’s physical presence became increasingly less central. The title of the exhibition, The End is a New Beginning, refers to the way the artist addressed creative struggles by rehearsing and repeating artistic gestures, as well as by recycling certain ideas that reappeared in his art across different cycles, where they became the starting point for entirely new works. The title also alludes to the methodology of working on Roelandt’s archive. The End is a New Beginning is Hugo Roelandt’s first retrospective exhibition in a museum, marking the tenth anniversary of his passing. M HKA and CKV (Flemish Centre for Art Archives) received the complete archive of Hugo Roelandt. As an artist resistant to the art market, Hugo Roelandt never intended to leave a legacy. Yet, in holding such valuable cultural assets, M HKA has taken on the complex challenge of contextualising Roelandt’s practice and its key role in the history of image and performance art in Belgium. 

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Marc Holthof and Lydia Van Loock. 

– Nav Haq and Joanna Zielińska

 

 


 

 

 

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