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
In 1996, these two pieces of weaving tools where shown at the exhibition La porte de l'Europe (les bourgeois de Calais). Calais is a place where lace has traditionally been produced since the nineteenth century through a system of punch cards with patterned holes instructing a sequence of operations.
The text hanging above the pieces gives an extra dimension to the concept of this artwork, comparing the automatism of the binary lace-making machines (perhaps the forefather of the computer) with the orderly jardin à la française.