21 Apr 2016

Netwerk / center for contemporary art: Hugo Roelandt - Post(ume) Getuigenis

Opening event: SA 23.04 2016 20:00
+ re-enactment of the performance Creatie van een Stuk, 1978
+ testimonies by Roger D'Hondt, Marc Holthof and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven.

Reenactment by performance artist, Maria Degrève and musicians, Kwinten Callens, David De Corte and Nikolaas Van Droogenbroeck, will present the reenactment.

In association with the New Reform Archive, Netwerk pays homage to performance artist, Hugo Roelandt (°1950 Aalst), who died on July 21, 2015. The exhibition focuses on the artist activities that he realised during the 70's and 80's in his hometown of Aalst.

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Creatie van een Stuk
Hugo Roelandt, Herwig Bomon, Johan Bronder, Peter Bronder
March 24th, 1978, New Reform, Aalst

The small space of the New Reform Gallery is covered with black plastic. Within this set Hugo Roelandt places three tightly bundled light beams. These are directed upon musicians lying on the ground. The set is arranged so that the audience has to walk through the light beams. The musicians play two existing tracks and a free improvisation, each with a duration of 7-minutes. Every time an audience member moves about the space in a way that blocks a beam of light, the musicians do not play. Each participating spectator achieves his or her own harmony. The public, in fact, has the decisive power over the sound and thus creates a new musical piece. Hugo himself determines the time limit with a clock and sticky tape bound around and about the musicians. The residue remaining after the performance is visible as exhibition material.

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In consultation with Lydia Van Loock, Hugo's wife, the Antwerp Academy decided to consolidate the archives of the artist and use them as a platform for research about the artist and performance art in Belgium. The M HKA will preserve the archives and make them public. A website will be launched where in-depth research is being presented by different partners. The New Reform archives support this initiative.

Objectif Exhibitions is showing two exhibitions with of work by Hugo Roelandt. The first exhibition: Hugo Roelandt: Let's Expand the Sky – in Black and White runs from April 16 to June 4, 2016, in Antwerp.

Argos takes initiative for the digitization and distribution of a vast amount of videotapes. Also, the Middelheim Museum is planning to realise some presentations from Hugo Roelandt. Montevideo Archive and M HKA organize (in the same period as the exhibitions in Objectif), two documentary exhibitions about Montevideo, the alternative space where he was one of the founders.