Pieter Jan Valgaeren is a curator, researcher and lecturer. From his background in art history and law he specialized in new media, hybrid art forms, technology and intellectual property.
He published on different topics such as IP rights in the digital age, social media, media philosophy and art in the public domain. In the past years he worked as a consultant for the EU in Art and Technology and for the Flemish ministry of Culture.
As a lecturer he teached at Universities in Berlin, Valetta, Tilburg and Madrid and Thomas More Mechelen. Since 2014, he is the artistic director of Stadstriennale Hasselt-Genk, festivals focussing on the impact of our current screen-culture on the arts.
Notions such as ‘personal identity’ and ‘image’ seem to fade in the era of social media and selfies. The question remains to be asked however, as to if they are actually more present than ever? We gaze at ourselves through a catalogue of images of others, filled with decontextualized references. This exposition unwinds in a curious yet critical way the urge to ‘trademark’ ourselves. Anonymity, self-reflection and social stratification are blended into static or moving images, creating an ample variety of images in which the visitor can find and conform himself. The dynamic areas of the cultural centre do not only offer exhibition space, but rather a labyrinth with keys to ‘self-image-ination’.
Emmanuel d’Autreppe is Professor in History of Photography, Aesthetics and Literature at the Academy of Visual Arts, Sint-Lucas (Liège) and in 2016 deputy professor at the VUB (Brussels). He is director of the photographic collection of the Yellow Now editions and co-author of a study on social-professional photography in Belgium (Smart.be Foundation, 2012). He actively works with several institutes in Flanders and Wallonia, where he curates exhibitions on photography and visual arts.
This is the Sound of TM focuses on the trademark that musical artists create around their persona. More than ever these artists manifest themselves as multidisciplinary image makers. Often the help of visual artists is also invoked. Inspired and triggered by examples from various branches of art and recent (pop) history, they become experts in techniques of assimilation: from inspiration to adaptation and commercial use. Through a selection of both world famous and innovating cooperations, This is the Sound of TM sheds a new light on their identity. By widening the traditional exhibition model concerned with inspiration, the visitor gets to experience a cyclical exhibition with digital installations, interactive musical sculptures, video projections and much more.
Tim Goossens is a belgian curator based in New York. He holds a double Master in Art History (KU Leuven and the Sorbonne, Paris) and a Master in Museum Studies (Ecole du Louvre, Paris). He moved to New York and was assistant-curator at MoMA PS1 until 2010. In New York he organized exhibitions with amongst others Patti Smith, Ceal Floyer, Pieter Vermeersch, Dirk Braeckman, Kasper Bosmans and Edith Dekyndt. At MoMA PS1 he collaborated on Greater New York, a Kenneth Anger retrospective, and he co-founded the acclaimed Saturday Sessions performance series. Currently he is curator at The Clocktower Gallery (New York), one of the oldest non-profit art spaces in the US, where he has worked on projects with Joan Jonas, Patti Smith, Nancy Holt and Antony and the Johnsons. He is also curatorial director at Envoy Enterprises in the Lower East Side and since 2014 he is a professor at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Willem Van der Stock works as assistant-curator to Tim Goossens for the exhibition This is the Sound of TM . He holds a Master in Art History (KU Leuven and Complutense University, Madrid) an also worked as assistant-curator at Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection in Paris.
As early as 1974 Nam June Paik launched the term Electronic Superhighway: artists and intellectuals would be able to freely exchange data and films and this would generate an unprecedented social impact. Creating this virtual public space remains the dream of the Internet. As in a place without any state interference where people can join critical public debates and freely gather or offer information (web 2.0).
Yet the longed for democratic public space of the Internet is under threat. More and more the net resembles a gigantic shopping mall, where the public space may well appear free, but is in reality being monopolised by powerful telecom, technology and internet companies. Along today’s electronic superhighway, the logos of Amazon, Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or TEDx arise. One by one they represent powerful American brands controlling the infrastructure and services of the network.
This increasing centralisation and commercialisation of the Internet unleashes heated discussions. Multinationals engage in violating privacy, monitoring users profiles and Internet traffic, and abusing personal data for commercial goals. Moreover, the Internet at times leads to unethical economic and political practices and manipulations of the freedom of expression by firms with strong stakeholders.
The exhibition Corporate Parodies shows how artists and activists contribute to an inclusive debate on these evolutions. Through their work they show and question the influence of these companies and develop systems and loopholes to limit or bypass their power. More than once, they succeed in beating these multinationals with their own technology or in exposing their malpractices through their ingenuous interventions.
Christophe de Jaeger obtained a master’s degree in Arts & Technology at the University of Plymouth and is currently working on a PhD on Media Art in the 60s and 70s at King’s College in London. He is, as a curator, affiliated with the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels where he coordinates various projects on photography and media. As a freelance curator, he built a large international network in the field of visual and media arts. He realized projects in Belgium (e.g. BOZAR 2012), the United States and Shanghai (Moca 2012; the Brussels Pavilion at the World Expo 2010-2015). For the municipality of Knokke-Heist Christophe De Jaeger has curated several editions of the Photo Festival. Since 2015 he is the director of GLUON.
Participating artists
Cory Arcangel (US), Vanessa Beecroft (USA/IT) & Kanye West), Björk (IS) & Andrew Huang (USA), Cibelle Cavalli Bastos (BR), Asian Dope Boys (CN), DonChristian Jones (US), Frieke Janssens & Stromae (BE), Es Devlin (UK), Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin (NL/USA), Robert Mapplethorpe & Patti Smith (US), Rashaad Newsome (US), Nomi Ruiz (USA), Naama Tsabar (IL), Tori Wrånes (NO), Leroy Brothers (BE/FR), Guido Segni (The Middle Fingle Response), Mediengruppe Bitnik (Random Darknet Shopper), Kayle Brandon & Kate Rich (Feral Trade), Ubermorgen (Vote Auction 2000), The Yes Men (Yeslab), Rainer Brendl aka ‘6’(@SEX), Matthew Plummer Fernandez & Julien Deswaef (Shiv Integer), Kari Altmann en contribuanten (R-U-IN?S), CTA Heath Bunting & Rachel Baker (Natural Reality SuperWeed kit 1.0), Dries Depoorter & Ward Oostlijnck (TinderMe.Cards), DIS (DIS Magazine), Ruth Catlow & Marc Garrett (Furtherfield), moddr_lab (Suicidemachine), Dennis De Bel (Genius Bar), Evan Roth (Ideas Worth Spreading), Dries Depoorter (Scratch Tickets), Clifton Anthony (Bored Lord).
