Produced on the occasion of Jef Geys, Bergen Kunsthall, 20 November, 2020–5 April, 2021.

Kempens Informatieblad, was a newspaper published by Belgian artist Jef Geys between 1971 and 2018.

Since the early 1960s, in addition to his interlocking artistic and pedagogical work, Geys was also involved in the production and distribution of a local newspaper, the Kempisch Reklaamblad, on whose pages he began to publish various textual and pictorial material among the advertisements placed therein. After it was discontinued, Geys took over the paper and continued it under his own direction as Kempens Informatieblad.

Functioning as an alternative to the conventional artist catalog, the issues, over 50 in total, were mostly published in connection with his exhibitions. As an information system directed by the artist, it successively developed into a kind of meta-medium within his practice, through which he himself organized his representation and mediation—beyond the exhibition context.

More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Nicholas Tammens talk Jef Geys and the School can be found here.

Produced in accompaniment to Jef Geys’ exhibition Woodward Avenue, Summer 2010.

Kempens Informatieblad, was a newspaper published by Belgian artist Jef Geys between 1971 and 2018.

Since the early 1960s, in addition to his interlocking artistic and pedagogical work, Geys was also involved in the production and distribution of a local newspaper, the Kempisch Reklaamblad, on whose pages he began to publish various textual and pictorial material among the advertisements placed therein. After it was discontinued, Geys took over the paper and continued it under his own direction as Kempens Informatieblad.

Functioning as an alternative to the conventional artist catalog, the issues, over 50 in total, were mostly published in connection with his exhibitions. As an information system directed by the artist, it successively developed into a kind of meta-medium within his practice, through which he himself organized his representation and mediation—beyond the exhibition context.

Set of 5 cards produced on the occasion of Jef Geys, Bergen Kunsthall, 20 November 2020–5 April 2021.

The exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall looks into some aspects that are specific to Jef Geys’ oeuvre, such as his work with pedagogy, architecture, and art history. Through a series of different chapters, the exhibition brings seminal works together with rarely seen objects and archive materials, focusing on the artist’s use of different production and circulation systems, such as the school, industrial workshops, rural spaces and the art world. His use of these distinct systems is explored as a questioning of authorship and identity, but also as an investigation of infrastructures through which meaning and knowledge is produced and distributed.

More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Nicholas Tammens’ talk Jef Geys and the School can be found here.

A special archival issue, featuring unpublished Martin Margiela lookbook photographs, a horse, street style from the 90’s, vases of Japan, a silver story, a flash forward and back, tennis, an icecube tray, more Margiela, Hysteric Glamour and a bunch of frivolous images. The stories are sourced from the book collections of RareBooksParis and Julie Peeters. Edited and designed by Julie Peeters.

Quilt #01–#30 presents a series of quilts–silkscreen printed fabrics (2013–ongoing) by Philipp Gufler. By combining text and image, Philipp Gufler’s series of works refers to artists, writers, LGBTIQ+magazines and lost queer spaces, which are often omitted from the usual history books. The subjects that are central to Gufler’s quilts are closely related to his own artistic practice and interests, but also his personal life. The publication features an essay by Laurie Cluitmans, curator of contemporary art at the Centraal Museum. Designed by Stefanie Hammann.

Mondo Cane presents itself as a local folkloric museum that displays the human figure. Silent, pale and frightened, the pavilion’s inhabitants appear as aestheticized shells, stuck in a loop of formal activity that the visitor perceives as odd and out of touch with contemporary reality.

Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys have the habit of distilling fictions out of a reality that is, sometimes, ‘too real.’ Both willingly concede that they feel attracted to the psychotic state of contemporary societies, a state that they simultaneously dread and disseminate in their work.

Designed by Boy Vereecken and Antoine Begon.