Seminar

Throughout his life Philippe Vandenberg met with substantial popular and critical acclaim, most of which however was rather local. Critical interpretations within an international perspective only recently emerged. This trend is encouraged by the Foundation by organizing closed seminars, granting the oeuvre of Philippe Vandenberg the critical attention it deserves.

Conceived as a direct confrontation with Vandenberg’s oeuvre, a selection of scholars, curators and artists from Belgium and beyond assembles in his studio, gathered around a choice of paintings and drawings made by them in advance. Each having their own background they were asked to freely elaborate on this selection to stimulate new readings of his work. The results of these discussions are overwhelming, generating ideas and thoughts on topics as diverse as the oeuvre’s semiotics, iconography or iconology. To ensure the information from the seminars is not lost, they were recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions from the previous seminars can be consulted on this website.

The 2017 edition of the seminar took place on October 26-27 and was conducted by Prof. Dr. Wouter Davidts (Adjunct-Professor, Ghent University, BE).

Participants:

Melanie Dankbar, Director, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, CH
Caroline Dumalin, Curator, WIELS, BE
Giulio D’Ali Aula, London, UK
Dr. Brigitte Kölle, Senior Curator, Hamburger Kunsthalle, DE
Felicity Lunn, Director, Centre PasquArt, Biel, CH
Anne Pontégnie, Curator, Cranford Collection, London, UK
Barry Rosen, Advisor to artists and artists’ estates, US
Samuel Saelemakers, Curator, Witte de With, Rotterdam, NL
Niels Van Tomme, Director, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL
Prof. Dr. Marek K. Wieczorek, Associate professor, University of Washington, Seattle, US