bio

Agency is the generic name of a Brussels-based agency that was established in 1992 by Kobe Matthys. Agency constitutes a growing list of things that resist the split between culture and nature. These things are mostly derived from juridical processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies, affairs and so forth involving intellectual properties (copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc...). The concept of intellectual property relies upon the assumption of the division between culture and nature and consequently between expressions and ideas, creations and facts, subjects and objects, humans and non-humans, originality and tradition, individuals and collectives, mind and body, etc.... Each thing on the list invokes the moment of hesitation in terms of those divisions.
Agency calls things forth from it's list via varying assemblies inside exhibitions, performances, publications, etc... Each assembly speculates topologically on a different question of the performative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of art practices and paying attention to other types of agencies.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2012

  • Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris (France)

2011

  • Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp (Belgium)
  • Showroom, London (UK)

2010

  • The Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Saint-Louis (MO) (USA)

2007

  • White Light, Düsseldorf (Germany)

2002

  • CASCO, Utrecht (The Netherlands)

1998

  • Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)

1997

  • 'On the desperate and long neglected need for small events', Roomade, Brussels (Belgium)

cv

Group Exhibitions (selection)

2011

'Une légende en cache une autre', Betonsalon, Paris (France)
'Animism', Generali Foundation, Vienna (Austria)
'La cabane au bout du jardin', L'Orangerie, Bastogne (Belgium)
'Agencia', Barbershop, Lisbon (Portugal)
'Grand Domestic Revolution', Casco, Utrecht (Netherlands)
'Speech Matters', Venice Biennial, Venice (Italy)

2010

'Animism', Extra City and M HKA, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Animism', Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
'Art of History, the', David Roberts Foundation, London (United Kingdom)
'Watchmen, Liars, Dreamers (Concrete Erudition 3), Le Plateau, Paris (France)
'Study after Nature', Elaine Levy Projects, Brussels (Belgium)

2009

'B-Sides', Lokaal 01, Breda, (The Netherlands)
'PhotoCairo4: THE LONG SHORTCUT', Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, (Egypt)
'Un-Scene', Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)

2008

'PhotoCairo4: THE LONG SHORTCUT', Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo
(Egypt)
'Un-Scene', Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)
'Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System' HMKV, PHOENIX Halle,
Dortmund (Germany)
Have the Cake and Eat it too: Institutional Critique as Instituting Practice', Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (Austria)

'When things cast no shadow', 5th Berlin Biennial, Berlin (Germany)

2007

'Miracle Goodnight', A.R.T. Hotel Ufer, Düsseldorf (Germany)

'It takes something to make something: Die sammlung Rausch Portikus', Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

'The film as a page of Victor Hugo rewritten in the style of nerval', Jet, Berlin (Germany)

2006

'On the Way to: from/to Europe', Shedhalle, Zurich (Switzerland)
'Biennal de Paris', Paris (France)
'Hyperbolic', Stuk, Leuven (Belgium)
'Cartografie', Recyclart, Brussels (Belgium)

2005

'Projekt Migration', Koelnischer Kunstverein, Koeln (Germany)
'Put on your blue genes', NGBK, Berlin (Germany)

2004

'Vollevox #7', Komplot, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels (Belgium)
'MIDI/ZUID, Komplot, South station, Brussels (Belgium)
'The invisible meeting', Mariantonia, Centro Universitario, Sao Paolo (Brasil)

2003

'Syteme D', Archeopteryx, Bordeaux (France)
'Over de onmogelijkheid van het plannen', Stroom, Den Hague (The Netherlands)
'Legal space/public space', établissement d'en face, Brussels (Belgium)

2002

'Laboratorium archief', Z33, Hasselt (Belgium)
'Ideas for living', SKOR, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Mutations', Tnprobe, Tokyo (Japan)

2001

'Mutations', La Raffinerie, Brussels (Belgium)
'Tirana bienniale 1', Tirana (Albania)
'Access 121', Kaaitheatre, Brussels (Belgium)
'What, how and for whom', Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (Austria)
'Mutations, Arc en rêve centre d'architecture', Bordeaux (France)

2000

'Culturas de archivo', Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona (Spain)
'Metro>polis', Brussels 2000, subway, Brussels (Belgium)
'What, how and for whom', Kroatian Artist Association, Zagreb (Kroatia)
'Smuggle', Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (Germany)
'Contact', Fri-Art, Fribourg (Switzerland)

1999

'Doel zonder oorzaak', W139, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Interarchiv', Kunstraum der Universität, Lüneburg (Germany)
'Laboratorium', Museum voor Fotografie e.a., Antwerp (Belgium)
'Twee uur breed of twee uur lang', Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (Belgium)

1998

'Twee uur breed of twee uur lang', Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon (Portugal)

1997

'Trapped reality', Centre d'Art Santa Monica, Barcelona (Spain)

1996

'Perfect', Mot & Van den Boogaard Gallery, Brussels (Belgium)

 

Lectures / Performances (selection)

2011

The Grand Domestic Revolution', Casco, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
'Legal Media', Goldsmith University, London (United Kingdom)
Showroom, London (United Kingdom)
'Pa/per View', Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)
'Traverses', Saint-Etienne (France)
'Tijd', Les Bains Connective, Brussels (Belgium)
'The Archive as Generator' Desingel, Antwerp (Belgium)
'I Was Driven On And On', Swiss Institute, Venice (Italy)

2010

'The Grand Domestic Revolution', Casco, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
'Study after Nature', Elaine Levy Projects, Brussels (Belgium)
'Salon 5', Argos, Brussels (Belgium)
'Animism', M HKA, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Come Alive! Gathering In, Gathering Around', Casco, Utrecht (The Netherlands)

2009

'Biopolitik und künstlerische Produktion', Basis, Frankfurt a M. (Germany)
'B-Sides', Lokaal 01, Breda, (The Netherlands)
DARE 4, MaHKU, Utrecht (The Netherlands) Artez, Arnhem (The Netherlands)
'Clifford Irvig Show', Kadist, Paris (France)
'Performatik', Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)

2008

'PhotoCairo4: THE LONG SHORTCUT', Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo
(Egypt)
'WOULDN'T IT BE NICE ...', Somerset House, London (GB)
'Catbag', AIR, ANtwerpen (Belgium)
'Pages', Teheran (Iran)
'When things cast no shadow', 5th Berlin Biennial, Berlin (Germany)
'Disclosures', Gasworks, London (United Kingdom)
L'école supérieure d'art de Grenoble, Grenoble (France)

2007

'Oil of the 21st Century', Bootlab, Berlin (Germany)
'Die Bebende Sockel', Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands)
'Opening week 2007', Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands)
L'école supérieure d'art de Grenoble, Grenoble (France)

2006

'De avonden', Behind the green curtains Café Greenwich, Brussels (Belgium)
'Steirsche Herbst', Graz (Austria)
'Mugatxoan', Fundaça Serralves, Porto (Portugal)

2005

Opening week 2005, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands)

2004

'Jonctions/Verbindingen 8', Brussels (Belgium)
'Vollevox #16', Petit Theatre Mercelis, Brussels (Belgium)
'Common Property', Werkleitz Biennale, Halle (Germany)
'Bartleby', HAU, Berlin (Germany)
'Pleinopenair', Citymined and Nova, MAP-RAC, Brussels (Belgium)
'Espai legal/espai public' Hangar, Barcelona (Spain)

2003

'Anti-loft', art-sytem, Toronto (Canada)
'Juniradio', Bootlab, Berlin (Germany)

2002

'Consumption as production', Beursschouwburg/Transmedia, Brussels (Belgium)

2001

PTTL, Brussels (Belgium)
'Wildcity', Cinema Rex, Belgrade (Serbia)
'Verbindingen/jonctions 5: recompile with deprecations', Constant, Brussels (Belgium)

2000

'Talking cities', MUWA, Graz (Austria)

biblio

2011

'Speech Matters', Venice Biennial, Venice (Italy)
'Animismus 2', Generali, Vienna (Austria)

2010

'Animism 1', M HKA, Antwerp (Belgium)
'De Witte Raaf', nr. 143, pp. 8-11, Koen Brams & Dirk Pultau (Eds.)
'Index', Appel, Amtsterdam (Netherlands)

2009

'F.R. David', Appel, Amtsterdam (Netherlands)

2008

'Starship #11', Berlin (Germany)
'dotdotdot 17', New York (USA)
'Casco Issues XI: An Ambiguous Case', Utrecht (Netherlands)

2007

'De Witte Raaf', nr. 130, pp. 8-11, Koen Brams & Dirk Pultau (Eds.)

2006

'Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa', pp. 102-135, Lars Müller Verlag, Baden (Switzerland); Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands).

'Vollevox', Komplot (Ed.), Brussels (Belgium)

2005

'The Manfesta Decade', MIT, Brussels (Belgium)

'Trichtlinburg I', Jan van Eyck, Maastricht (The Netherlands)

2003

'MetropolisM', Nummer 2, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

2001

'Quel est le role de l'artiste aujourd'hui?', Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France)
'Qu' attendez-vous d'une institution artistique du 21e siecle?', Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France)

2000

'X-TRA', Los Angeles (United States)

'B-Sites', Brussels (Belgium)

1996

'Etantdonne 6', Brussels (Belgium)

1994

'META 3', Kuenstlerhaus, Stuttgart (Germany)

2008

  • Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands)

documentation

 

AGENTSCHAP AGENCE / AGENCIA / AGENCY / AGENTUR

º1992
T: 02/538.60.23
E: kobe@agentive.org
W: www.agentive.org
Barrière-Bareel, P.B. 55
1060 Brussel, België

categories

architecture| artists| drawing| installation art| media art| painting| performances| photography| sculptures| video art