Memories of Montevideo: the Antwerp Avant-Garde Scene in the Early ‘80s

Part 1 (16.6–10.7) / Part 2 (14.7–7.8)

‘A meeting point for the national and international avant-garde’ – this is how Annie Gentils describes the non-profit contemporary art exhibition space she founded in Antwerp in 1981, along with Hugo Roelandt and soon thereafter Stan Peers.

Between 1981 and 1984, Gentils and Peers transformed Antwerp’s vast and unheated Montevideo dry dock into a hub for ambitious exhibitions and performances. These included some of the most prominent artists of the time, such as Guillaume Bijl, Kate Blacker, Luc Deleu, Shirazeh Houshiary, Ivo Van Hove, Ann Veronica Janssens, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Mario Merz, Ria Pacquée, Guy Rombouts and Luc Steels.

Benefitting from privileged access to Montevideo’s archives, a group of University of Antwerp Master students from the Film Studies and Visual Culture programme have put together a two-part exhibition for INBOX at M HKA retracing Montevideo’s radical yet underappreciated history. Through archival material, artworks, films and newly-produced video interviews, the exhibition seeks not only to draw attention to a remarkable episode of Antwerp’s artistic heritage, but also to raise the ever-pressing question of how best to nurture a cultural ecology that allows alternative spaces such as Montevideo to thrive.

Curated by Gina Hoeks, Tirsa van der Kleij, Shana Peulinckx, Emma Priem, Jasper van Quekelberghe, Marko Truyen and Bram Vroonland, with Antony Hudek.

Memories of Montevideo is a collaboration between M HKA, Annie Gentils Gallery, Objectif Exhibitions and University of Antwerp, Master of Film Studies and Visual Culture.

Click here for more info about Part I.