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

Jimmie Durham

image: (c) Maria Thereza Alves
Self-Portrait, 1987
Sculpture , 173 x 87 x 29 cm
canvas, wood, paint, feather, shell, turquoise, metal

"The Self-Portrait got to be very popular right away as soon as I made it. But I didn’t exactly make it on purpose. I made it because a gallery was doing a show of self-portraits and asked me to join. I said, 'Well I don’t do self-portraits, so I’m not going to do it' And they said, 'Come on, everybody is going to do it.' It was all minority artists doing things together.

So I had the idea as soon as I hung up the telephone: 'Okay, I’ll lie down on the floor and Maria Thereza can draw me on the canvas; then I’ll carve my face and see what else I will do...'" [full text here]