Peter Downsbrough's Focus Exhibition at S.M.A.K.
From September 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007, the S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent, Belgium, featured a significant exhibition by Peter Downsbrough, marking his first major showcase in Belgium since 2003. The display included a reimagined version of his 1985 work PAR / DES-ORDRE / DE, which served as the permanent reference point for the exhibition. Recent creations filled half of the ground-floor space, alongside a prominent installation, DIVERT / TO. Other featured items encompassed maquettes, a steel sculpture, photographs, a graphic cabinet, a video titled AS]IN, a book named TITLED, and postcards. The exhibition highlighted the consistency of Downsbrough's artistic language across different formats, focusing on the interplay between order and disorder.
Key facts
- Exhibition ran from September 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007.
- Most important Downsbrough show in Belgium since 2003 at Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels.
- Centered on 1985 piece PAR / DES-ORDRE / DE, OR from S.M.A.K. collection.
- The 1985 work was shown in a new version, never before displayed in the museum's current building.
- Included recent works: about ten pieces in half of the ground-floor rooms.
- Room piece DIVERT / TO placed in a space contiguous and comparable to the historical piece.
- Also featured maquettes, steel sculpture, photographs, graphic cabinet, video (DVD AS]IN), book TITLED, and postcards.
- Downsbrough's language is coherent across scales, techniques, and media.
- Spacing is key to his work, as per Derrida's concept.
- Dialectic of order/disorder in 1985 piece extended in 2006 work with inverse plastic valences.
- Text by Raymond Balau.
Entities
Artists
- Peter Downsbrough
- Raymond Balau
- Jacques Derrida
Institutions
- S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art
- Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels
Locations
- Ghent
- Belgium
- Brussels
Sources
- artpress —