Copy Certified: Copy, Counterfeit, and Cloning at Verbeke Foundation

The Verbeke Foundation in Westakker, Belgium, presents 'Copy Certified,' an exhibition curated by Simon Delobel exploring themes of copying, counterfeiting, and cloning. The foundation, opened in 2007 by collectors Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens, occupies 20,000 square meters of former transport hangars. The show features around thirty international artists, predominantly Belgian and Dutch. In 1989, American artist Larry Miller distributed certificates suggesting free use of one's DNA, prefiguring the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep. The exhibition is structured in four levels: imitation (Cristian Bors & Marius Ritiu copying Hirst, Murakami, Koons; Ad Schouten's fax-based copy of Kosuth's 'One and Three Chairs'), object collections (Hugo Draulans' fake surrealist artifacts), re-enactment (Paul Cornelis restaging Leo Copers' 1980 performance 'Le Voyant aveugle'), and genetic manipulation (Art Orienté Objet, Jianeta Eyre, Natalie Jeremijenko, Eduardo Kac; Adam Brandejs' Genpets—catalog-ordered pets sold in blister packs). The exhibition runs from November 20, 2010, to April 4, 2011.