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

    Wout Vercammen

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    Toujours en retard, 1969
    Wout Vercammen
    Painting , 80 x 180 cm
    acrylic, mixed media on canvas

    Vercammen and Deleu […] especially direct their commentary at our contemporary society.  The text-paintings from the former […] heckle and poke ridicule at more things than is first apparent.  What on the surface looks playful is, in fact, an expression of discontent.

    In its most explicit form, Wout Vercammen uses panels with mocking phrases painted in stenciled lettering: “Made in Belgium – Toujours en retard”.  ”The most ultramodern natural and original artificial artwork”. […]  The ambiguous use of the Belgian tricolor, brandishing with the stamp  “Belgium Registrated”, whereby any and everything - even the entire country - is taken possession of, providing material for reflection and, incidentally, attractive paintings as well.  Not without reason, has Pop Art highlighted the pictorial possibilities of the letter, the flag, the stamp and the signal.  And if the protest can also be beautifully rendered, then so much the better...  

    (bron: Speelse kritiek en kritisch spel [Playful critique and critical play], in: Gazet van Antwerpen 27/12/1978, Marc Callewaert)

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