Marcel Broodthaers
MARCEL | The Marcel Broodthaers room
26 march 2011 - 05 june 2011

The Marcel Broodthaers room: a proposal for a permanent display of the work of Marcel Broodthaers in the S.M.A.K. In the near future, the S.M.A.K. will be giving the work of Marcel Broodthaers the room it deserves. This room will be launched as a model and a design in the framework of the CAHF (Contemporary Art Heritage Flanders).

The museum has commissioned architecten de vylder vinck taillieu to conceive a setting for the work where presentation and research complement one another

Image: MARCEL | The Marcel Broodthaers room

Michael Sailstorfer | Raum und Zeit
26 march 2011 - 05 june 2011

Untamed absurdism, rebellious poetry and melancholy humour characterise the sculptural work of Michael Sailstorfer (1979, Germany).

Everyday objects such as lamp posts, police cars and bus stops are transformed into 'useless' images with a purely aesthetic value. Meaning is generated by means of traditional sculptural processes, thereby enabling the everyday itself to become sculpture. Sailstorfer has an eye for the formal qualities of objects, but he also leaves room for fiction, imagination and romance. He injects life into soulless things, makes trees fly and houses breathe.

Sailstorfer is interested in our personal experience of space. He therefore emphasises the contrast between his images and the place where they thrive. For example, he often takes typical big-city objects which he then places in a rural environment. When he wants to extend this contrast into a museum context, he introduces strange odours and street sounds into the room. In this way, the sculptures grow and their impact transcends their actual physical dimensions.

Image: Sailstorfer, Schwarzwald, 2010, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Courtesy Johann König, Berlin, and the artist

Joy and Disaster
26 march 2011 - 05 june 2011

To mark the Hungarian presidency of the European Union in 2011, S.M.A.K. is presenting a challenging dialogue between the work of contemporary Hungarian artists and works from its own collection. S.M.A.K. invited Zsolt Petrányi (Director of Múscarnok, Budapest Art Centre) to make the selection.
The basic premise for the Joy and Disaster exhibition is to revisit the issues raised thirty years ago in S.M.A.K.'s Prospect 80/1 show. In 1980, the former artistic director Jan Hoet selected six Hungarian artists for that exhibition: Miklós Erdély, Tibor Hajas, András Halász, Zsigmond Károlyi, Endre Tót and János Vetö. Hoet claimed that these artists, whom he classified as 'Eastern European', acted on motivations similar to those of their western peers. These included a withdrawal from society (a necessity in the East, while voluntary in the rest of Europe).

Selection of participating artists:
Emese Benczur, Tamás Kaszás, Adam Kokesh, Adrian Kupcsik, Little Warsaw, Dezso Szabo, SZAF and Tibor Zsolt, Miklos Erdély, Tibor Hajas and Zsigmond Károlyi.

More information: www.smak.be

Image: SZABÓ Dezső: Time Bomb VIII/I (a+b), 2006, 120x180cm each, C print, ed5
Courtesy Vintage Gallery, Budapest