For decades now, the body had been ubiquitous, in art as well as in the popular media, in fashion and in design. Even dance focuses more and more on the body in and of itself, not on the steps that the dancers perform. However, the media in particular seldom shows regular bodies. On the contrary, they wholesale extreme bodies—extremely perfect, heroic, ecstatic or just extremely pitiful.Those bodies are so different from the normal that they fascinate us because of their oddity. That fascination goes hand in hand with a considerable attention to the culture of body. Sometimes it seems as if one expects a final truth—an ultimate fulfilment—from the body.

Our mortal body however seldom succeeds in fulfilling all those big expectations.The body of the media is far removed from everyday life. However, as long as we blindly stare at that extraordinary body, we will not be able to see how extraordinary the ordinary body is. Innumerable bodily processes, which we barely notice, steer our being and our thinking.That is the point of departure of this exhibition. Can one reflect on this and then turn a performance of those unobserved bodily processes into art? How do these processes relate to our conscious thoughts and feelings? And what then is there to see? Curator PieterT’Jonck asked himself these same questions during the compilation of this exhibition.

He discovered that many, leading artists had devoted (a portion of) their oeuvres to these questions, long in the shadow of the great force of media. Although now they reap ever increasing recognition because they confront us with material things and how we perceive and experience them. Things that we do daily, without thinking but which are all mediated by our bodies.

The beauty of this is that in this artwork about humans and their bodies, there is often no body to be seen, even though that body is unequivocally the key to it all. Indeed, this art often has a distinctly interactive character. Not by having the viewer push buttons or turn knobs, but by explicitly inviting him or her to complete the work—either mentally or physically. Indeed, the idea that a work of art is only ‘finished’ in the act of its viewing is not new. In ‘SuperBodies’ however this occurrence assumes a central role. In the actual interaction with the works, bodily sensations and processes have the upper hand. Rather than imposing intimidating images of perfect bodies or showing the body as an image, ‘SuperBodies’ aims to excite the imagination about what your own body can be.

Of course, not only are fashion, design and contemporary art all present in ‘SuperBodies’. There are also choreographers present in the exhibition, in some places with physical works of art and in others with performances. All of this in an extensive track along the cultural houses of Hasselt. Cultuurcentrum Hasselt (Cultural Centre Hasselt), Z33 – huis voor actuele kunst (house of contemporary art), Modemuseum Hasselt (Fashion Museum Hasselt), CIAP and the city museum ‘Het Stadsmus’ provide space to upcoming and international artists and designers who operate on the limits of their disciplines to hold the reality of the body up to the light.

Free entrance
February 4, 2012 – may 27, 2012 – fromTuesday through Sunday
*The exhibitions in Z33 and CIAP run to may 13, 2012.

Who is PieterT’Jonck?

Curator PieterT’Jonck is an engineer-architect. He has had his own firm since 1986. Furthermore, he is one of Belgiums most important dance critics. He has been a contributor to innumerable domestic and international newspapers, magazines and radio. He has also worked on various books about theatre, dance, architecture, urban development and the visual arts.

Artists:

Vincen Beeckman (1973, BE) Sylvia Bossu (1962-1995, FR) Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010, FR) Trisha Brown (1936, US) Fernando Campana & Humberto Campana (1953 & 1961, BR) Boris Charmatz (1973, FR) Lygia Clark (1920-1988, BR) Christophe Coppens (1969, BE) Theo Cowley (1976, GB) Christoph De Boeck (1972, BE) Deufert & Plischke (1973 & 1971, DE) Ivo Dimchev (1967, BU) Angelo Figus (1975, IT) Naomi Filmer (1969, GB) Christophe Fink (1963, BE) William Forsythe (1949, US) Lisbeth Gruwez (1977, BE) Ann Veronica Janssens (1956, BE) Eric Joris (1954, BE) Hannah Joris (1984, BE) Rei Kawakubo (1942, JP) Kaisu Koski (1975, FI) Ginna Lee (1982, KR) Bernhard Leitner (1938, AT) Lemm&Barkey (ID & BE) Lawrence Malstaf (1972, BE) Martin Margiela (1957, BE) Linda Molenaar (1972, NL) Jean-Luc Moulène (1955, FR) Matt Mullican (1953, US) Ernesto Neto (1964, BR) Anna Opperman (1940-1993, FR) Steve Paxton (1939, US) Gaetano Pesce (1939, IT) Piero Gatti (1940, IT) Cesare Paolini (1937, IT) & FrancoTeodoro (1939, IT) Gio Ponti (1891-1979, IT) Janneke Raaphorst (NL) Liesje Reyskens (1984, BE) Martin Riches (1941, UK) Kiki Smith (1954, US) Erwin Stache (1960, DE) Meg Stuart (1965, US) Studio 65 (1965, IT) Superamas (1999, AT) IlkeTheeuwes (1986, BE) Joëlle Tuerlinckx (1958, BE) Marloeke van der Vlugt (1971, NL) Kris Verdonck (1974, BE) Junya Watanabe (1961, JP) Franz West (1947, AT) Yang Zhenzhong (1968, CN) Anna-Nicola Ziesche (1972, DE) Zhang Huan (1965, CN)