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.

Publication produced on the occasion of Jef Geys presentation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009, in the form of an overview of media comments compiled by Mélanie Gaillard. The show which was curated by Dirk Snauwaert, featured elements of Geys’ work from the last four decades.

In 2015, the Frans Masereel Centre started a collaboration with Geys to publish parts of his archive. The first archive publication, Archief 1 and Archief 2, consists of two thick volumes in A4 format with more than 800 scanned archive documents, and appeared on the occasion of Geys’s solo exhibition in the SMAK in 2015. The material was presented as it was, without any explanation or hierarchy.

Archief 5 appeared on the occasion of Geys’ archive installation about the role of the media in the Gulf War in the M HKA, and was preceded by a brief pre-publication of documents relating to the execution process of the installation and an introduction by Bart De Baere.

An animation of the contents of the book courtesy of the Frans Masereel Centre can be seen here.

In 2015, the Frans Masereel Centre started a collaboration with Geys to publish parts of his archive. The first archive publication, Archief 1 and Archief 2, consists of two thick volumes in A4 format with more than 800 scanned archive documents, and appeared on the occasion of Geys’s solo exhibition in the SMAK in 2015. The material was presented as it was, without any explanation or hierarchy.

Archief 4 (2017) begins with a detailed index of Geys’ archive, a complete station novel with annotations by Geys, and continues with documents relating to cultural subsidies and correspondence concerning the foundation of an association for visual artists who fought in the early seventies for a social status for visual artists.

An animation of the contents of the book courtesy of the Frans Masereel Centre can be seen here.