HISK laureates 2011
19 November–11 December 2011
Opening: Friday November 18, 2011
Open: 6pm / Speech by Pascal Smet, Flemish Minister of Education, Youth, Equal Opportunities and Brussels: 8pm /Party: 10pm
Higher Institute for Fine Arts
Charles de Kerchovelaan 187a
B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Free entrance
Thursday to Sunday, 12pm–6pm
T +3292696760
[email protected]
Artists: Elise Berkvens (NL) , Céline Butaye (BE), Zoro Feigl (NL), Nicole Franchy (PE), Sarah Gerats (NL), Isabela Grosseova (CZ) , Hedwig Houben (NL), Miks Mitrevics (LV), Noor Nuyten (NL), Jan Op de Beeck (BE), Karl Philips (BE), Neha Sharma Sarai (IN)
Curators: KOMPLOT – Sonia Dermience and Heidi Ballet
Exhibition scenography and book design: Überknackig
Sonia Dermience and Heidi Ballet of the Brussels-based curatorial collective Komplot translate their ongoing investigations into nomadic creative practices and collective authorship into this exhibition featuring the twelve artists who have come to the end of their two-year working period at the HISK.
Acknowledging the individual practices of each artist, the curators have taken the HISK’s front building as their starting point. The former officer’s mess can be seen as an oversized bourgeois family house—with its wooden floors, fireplaces and high ceilings—and each artist has been given a room of their own for the duration of the exhibition. Instead of any overarching theme, the artists’ individuality is highlighted within the building’s framework. For the duration of the exhibition the HISK is also pleased to welcome a special feline guest, Milord the cat. His meanderings amongst the artworks on display will symbolically bind together the show as a whole. Milord’s particular view of the exhibition, recorded via a webcam that he will wear around his neck, can be viewed by the public on the HISK website as soon as the exhibition opens.
The book accompanying the exhibition The Visitor will be presented at the opening and will be on sale for 5 euros.
About the HISK
The HISK offers a postgraduate course in audiovisual and visual art.
The institute provides 24 young artists from Belgium and abroad with a studio of their own for two years. The emphasis at the institute lies on individual practice. The programme aims to achieve a practical balance between study in the studio, discussions with visiting lecturers, workshops, reading groups, field trips and public presentations. The international and culturally diverse composition of the candidate laureate group makes for cross-pollination and dialogue. The diversity of the international visiting lecturers provides a framework within which the candidate laureates learn to view their own work with a critical eye. The unique HISK concept allows participants every opportunity to invest in critical research for their work within a broader artistic, cultural and societal context. At the end of the two years, the artist receives a ‘Laureate of the Higher Institute for Fine Arts’ certificate. Since 1997, 172 laureates have graduated from the institute. The majority of them are now pursuing successful professional careers in the international art world.
