Brussels, Brussels Region, Belgium
I am a senior curator and art historian working at the intersection of exhibition history, performance research, and institutional development. Since the early 1990s, my work has focused on building curatorial models that translate long-term research into exhibitions, publications, learning programs, and sustainable institutional frameworks. I belong to the first generation of curators who, during the 1990s, developed new exhibition formats, biennials, and research-driven platforms in response to globalization and post–Cold War cultural conditions. I have served as artistic director of major biennial and exhibition projects, advised public institutions and cultural policy bodies, and taught internationally in curatorial and museum studies programs. A central strand of my practice concerns performance and other time-based or ephemeral practices: how they are documented, historicized, and activated within museum contexts. My current work includes the development of a catalogue raisonné of performance works by Matt Mullican, conceived not only as a scholarly publication but as an institutional tool for programming, archival strategy, and future research. I have edited and authored numerous major publications, including The Manifesta Decade (MIT Press), and continue to work with museums, archives, and artists on research-intensive projects that address the long-term conditions of contemporary art.
A monograph tracing the solo trajectories of Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, alongside their collaborative practice, across three decades and two continents—mapping more than 600 works and 6,000 references. Rejecting linear chronology, the book constructs a networked structure that foregrounds individual works while exposing their dialogical, recursive logic. Conceived not as a retrospective but as a critical interface, it frames their practice as an evolving field of shifting motifs, works, sites, and collaborations.
Exhibition on the Antwerp art center A 37 90 89—named after its telephone number and evoking both “A” for Antwerp and the notion of an anti-museum—directed by Kasper König in 1969. Based on the institution’s archive and a 24-hour film loop, the project revisited its six-month program through a broader cultural and political lens. Hundreds of digitized files—administrative documents, reports, program notes, correspondence—scrolled slowly across a large-scale screen, accompanied by readings of archival texts interwoven with news and music from the period. This exhibition-film staged a flashback to the art center’s brief yet radical life, situating its activities within the charged historical conditions of 1969.
Curated the first survey of the renowned Italian painter and installation artist in her home country. Spanning four decades, the exhibition reintroduced Simoni’s practice to an Italian context that, like many others, historically marginalized the contributions of women artists. Featuring paintings, installations, and archival materials, it constructed a narrative tracing the entanglement of Simoni’s life and work. The exhibition was accompanied by a comprehensive monograph, with contributions by, among others, Denys Zacharopoulos, presenting the first chronological overview of her life and oeuvre.
Professor of Exhibition Studies and Director of the Exhibition Laboratory.