Dirk Braeckman and Eva Wittocx to represent Belgium at the Venice Biennial 2017
Next year, Dirk Braeckman will represent Belgium at the 57th Venice Biennial. The exhibition in the pavilion will be curated by Eva Wittocx, Senior Curator and General Coordinator of M-Museum Leuven. After past edition featuring artists such as Vincent Meessen, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Angel Vergara, Jef Geys and Honoré d’O, Dirk Braeckman will now have an international stage in Venice.
Dirk Braeckman will explore several new areas for the Belgian pavilion and will present new work. His themes will be powerful pictures that respond to the mass production and consumption of images. Each picture and each slogan demands our attention, irrespective of whether it is on television, the internet or in the public space. For the pavilion in Venice, Dirk Braeckman and curator Eva Wittocx will endeavour to create a tranquillity and careful attention to images. His photos will disrupt the regular torrent of images.
M-Museum Leuven will function as the organizing institution for this exhibition, with Eva Wittocx as the curator.
The work of Dirk Braeckman (°1958) has been the subject of solo exhibitions at S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE), De Pont Foundation in Tilburg (NL), Le Bal in Paris (FR), Museum M, Leuven (BE), Fotohof Salzburg (DE), Kunsthalle Erfurt (DE) and De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam (NL). The Royal Family of Belgium commissioned the artist for a permanent installation in the Sphinx Room of the Royal Palace in Brussels. Work of the artist can be found in the following public collections: Artothèque in Annecy (FR), Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (FR), Centro Fotografia de la Universidad Salamanca (ES), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), Fondation national d’art contemporain in Paris (FR), Fotomuseum in Antwerp (BE), FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk (FR), FRAC Rhône -Alpes in Villerbanne (FR), Haags Gemeentemuseum (NL), MACs Hornu (BE), Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (FR), Musée d’Art Contemporain et Moderne in Strasbourg (FR), Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi (BE), Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne (CH), Musee Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saône (FR), M HKA in Antwerp (BE), Mu.ZEE in Ostend (BE), Royal Palace in Brussels (BE), Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE) and Centraal Museum in Utrecht (NL). Dirk Braeckman is represented by Zeno X from 1999 onwards.
