Liesbeth Decan: Jef Geys and the medium of photography (NL)
In this lecture, Liesbeth Decan explores Jef Geys' use of photography as a crucial medium to connect art and everyday life. In his multifaceted practice, Geys sought to blur the boundaries between the social, the political, and the aesthetic, and undo the differences between so-called 'high' and 'low' art. To this end, the medium of photography proved to be the ideal 'conductor'. Starting from several works included in the exhibition You don't see what you think you see, the idea of the archive, the 'vernacular', and reproduction, three notions that touch on both the core of Geys' work and the specificities of the medium of photography, will be discussed.
In Dutch
Free with registration
WIELS Auditorium
Lola Pertsowsky, 2023
BIO
Liesbeth Decan teaches art and photography history at LUCA School of Arts Brussels. She is a doctor in art history (KU Leuven). Her research has long focused on the use of photography by artists, especially in Belgium, between the 1960s and early 1990s. Her most extensive publication on that topic is the book Conceptual, Surrealist, Pictorial: Photo-based Art in Belgium (1960-early 1990s) (Leuven University Press, 2016), in which the work of Jef Geys is an important case study. On the same topic, she made the exhibition Van Broodthaers tot Braeckman. Fotografie in de beeldende kunst in België at M HKA, Antwerp (2017). She co-edited the books Philippe Van Snick: Dynamic Project (with Hilde Van Gelder; ASA Publishers, 2010) and Photography Performing Humour (with Mieke Bleyen; Leuven University Press, 2019). In 2020, she initiated a research project on the Belgian-Polish artist Tapta, resulting in several exhibitions and publications (Arton Foundation, Warsaw (2021); WIELS, Brussels (2023); Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland (2024)).