Photo: Dirk Pauwels, S.M.A.K., Ghent
The Library is the result of a long dialogue between the artist and Philippe Van Cauteren, director of S.M.A.K., in response to a donation that Koen Broucke wanted to make to the museum.
This conversation began in 2013 and focused on how his diverse oeuvre could become part of the S.M.A.K. collection. The significance of Broucke's work lies not only in the concrete works of art - paintings, drawings, sketches, texts, performances and the like - that he creates, but also in what happens between those works.
The challenge of The Library is to make this in-between space visible, to give the viewer insight into how Koen Broucke's artistic thinking functions. After all, for a museum like S.M.A.K., collecting is more than simply accumulating works of art; it is also holding on to and making visible the artist's mentality. This is often done by means of paintings, drawings or objects, but in Koen Broucke's case also by means of a collection of books, which were invariably present in his studio, and which comprise, as it were, the artistic field in which he operates. This collection, like Broucke's artistic practice, is highly diverse and includes not only books on art, but also literature, poetry, biographies, history, music, etc.
This monumental piece of library furniture, a replica of the original designed in the studio by Renaat Nyckees, forms, as it were, the humus layer in and around which Koen Brouckes' paintings, drawings and sketchbooks are displayed and preserved.
The complete inventory of The Library was also published in an artist's book of the same name, with handwritten notes by the artist and texts by Leen Huet and Philippe Van Cauteren.
(Thibaut Verhoeven)
https://smak.be/en/news/the-library
This conversation began in 2013 and focused on how his diverse oeuvre could become part of the S.M.A.K. collection. The significance of Broucke's work lies not only in the concrete works of art - paintings, drawings, sketches, texts, performances and the like - that he creates, but also in what happens between those works.
The challenge of The Library is to make this in-between space visible, to give the viewer insight into how Koen Broucke's artistic thinking functions. After all, for a museum like S.M.A.K., collecting is more than simply accumulating works of art; it is also holding on to and making visible the artist's mentality. This is often done by means of paintings, drawings or objects, but in Koen Broucke's case also by means of a collection of books, which were invariably present in his studio, and which comprise, as it were, the artistic field in which he operates. This collection, like Broucke's artistic practice, is highly diverse and includes not only books on art, but also literature, poetry, biographies, history, music, etc.
This monumental piece of library furniture, a replica of the original designed in the studio by Renaat Nyckees, forms, as it were, the humus layer in and around which Koen Brouckes' paintings, drawings and sketchbooks are displayed and preserved.
The complete inventory of The Library was also published in an artist's book of the same name, with handwritten notes by the artist and texts by Leen Huet and Philippe Van Cauteren.
(Thibaut Verhoeven)
https://smak.be/en/news/the-library
Photo: Dirk Pauwels, S.M.A.K., Ghent