Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

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    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

    James Lee Byars

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    (c)image: M HKA
    The Perfect Kiss, Antwerp 1976, 1976
    James Lee Byars
    Other , 29.5 x 21 cm
    paper

    "Leo Dohmen had a – well, is it art deco or Jugendstil? – house in Berchem. That house is still there. Byars wanted to do something there because it was still an original Jugendstil decor, the walls and everything. I think twenty people turned up. The Perfect Kiss. That was just James standing on a small shelf. [...] Those were things that he did here and there, that was not a one-off thing. It is perhaps the shortest statement he made: standing on a podium and moving his lips for a moment, barely visible.

    Source: unpublished interview with Patrick Verelst.

    "Patrick Verhelst performed The Perfect Kiss at Leo Dohmen, Generaal van Merlenstraat 44, in that Art Nouveau quarter in Antwerp, close to the Cogels-Osylei: there is a kind of diamond-shaped square, the four houses are the four seasons and one of the four was inhabited by Leo Dohmen. That interior was beautifully preserved. Byars must have found that wonderful. One performance was organised in 1976. The first Perfect Kiss was in 1974, but after that he still performed it."

    Source: unpublished interview with Yves Gevaert

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