The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) announces artists for TRACK. A Contemporary City Conversation 12 May–16 September 2012.
TRACK is a temporary exhibition in the public and semi-public space of the city of Ghent. Philippe Van Cauteren and Mirjam Varadinis invited 35 artists to make an in-depth exploration of six typical neighbourhoods in Ghent and to come up with artistic proposals that interact with the different communities in various ways. The curators took the time to select surprising, meaningful and hidden locations in the wider city centre of Ghent and invited artists who have an affinity with the thematic context of the various places. The selected artists use the local reality as a fertile source of inspiration to reflect upon the city and the contemporary human condition in a global light. The results of their explorations are not simply traditional works of art, but artistic projects with an intense relationship with the city and its inhabitants that will leave permanent traces.
TRACK consists of six clusters in the city, each with its own distinct character and atmosphere:
CITADEL: the neighbourhood between St Peter’s Station and the Citadelpark, where the 1913 world exhibition took place and where the city’s major museums are now located.
BLANDIJN: the university quarter, with its high concentration of educational institutions and student amenities.
CENTRE: the historical centre of the city, where trade has flourished for centuries and where present-day tourism is concentrated.
MACHARIUS: the quarter where the rivers Leie and Schelde meet and where the city was born.
TOLHUIS: the area around Fratersplein, which is home to a large number of healthcare institutions.
TONDELIER: an industrial site on the outskirts of the city, which is being transformed into a new quarter for housing and business.
TRACK as a whole offers a historical, cultural, architectural and mental cross-section of Ghent and the idea of a city today.
The exhibition parcours invites you to explore the city, its history, its inhabitants and its relationship with the globalised world. TRACK is not conceived as a linear narration with one theme but as a universe of parallel (hi)stories that offers a wide variety of angles and experiences.
TRACK was initiated by S.M.A.K. It continues the tradition established by the large-scale exhibition projects Chambres d’Amis (1986) and Over the Edges (2000), that had installed contemporary art in the context of the city and entered into a direct dialogue with the public.
Invited artists:
Lara Almarcegui
Pawel Althamer
Sven Augustijnen
Massimo Bartolini
Johanna Billing
John Bock
Michaël Borremans
Mike Bouchet
Christoph Büchel
Peter Buggenhout
Mircea Cantor
Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset
Cerith Wyn Evans
Cao Fei
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Cyprien Gaillard
Mekhitar Garabedian
Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller
Tadashi Kawamata
Alon Levin
Bart Lodewijks
Emilio López-Menchero
Mark Manders
Teresa Margolles
Tatzu Nishi
Ahmet Öğüt
Tobias Putrih
Kateřina Šedá
Superflex
Pilvi Takala
Javier Téllez
Tercerunquinto
Benjamin Verdonck
Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan
Erik Van Lieshout
Danh Vo
Lawrence Weiner
S.M.A.K.
Citadelpark
B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
T +32 92 240 76 60
[email protected]
www.track.be
