The exhibitions Urgent Conversations: Athens–Antwerp and Urgent Conversations: Antwerp – Athens are a collaboration between EMST and M HKA, a theoretical and visual dialogue, based on works from the collections of both museums, which includes more than 70 works structured in 22 topics.   

28.04.2017 - 07.01.2018        

M HKA, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen - Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerpen

EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art - Kallirrois Avenue & Amvr. Frantzi Str., Athens 11743

Danny Matthys

(c)image: M HKA
Balken, wegberm in Dworp, 1975
Photography , 34 x 40.5 cm

Danny Matthys’ oeuvre includes diverse media such as photography, installation art, video, painting, assemblage and sculpture.  In his work he reconnoiters his surrounding environment.  He explores and analyzes this milieu, in the broadest sense of the word.  He scans the physical space; he studies and systematizes it.  The laying bare of structures is, however, always more important than the aesthetic characteristics.  Matthys wishes the viewer to become aware of the complexity of our ways of seeing.  From this vantage point, the work may be seen as a formalized investigation into the process of perception. 

The piece Balken, wegberm in Dworp [Beams, roadside verge in Dworp], plays with the concepts of order and measure.  The number, as symbol for indicating a place, a unit of time or the measure of a certain quantity, occupies an important role in the oeuvre of Danny Matthys.  Beams, roadside verge in Dworp, comprises 36 photographs, just fitting on one small roll of film - similarly to the different beams that also seem to be parts of a larger whole.  Danny Matthys tries to penetrate and fathom the notion of series, and so come to an understanding of particular structures.