M HKA gaat digitaal

Met M HKA Ensembles zetten we onze eerste échte stappen in het digitale landschap. Ons doel is met behulp van nieuwe media de kunstwerken nog beter te kaderen dan we tot nu toe hebben kunnen doen.

We geven momenteel prioriteit aan smartphones en tablets, m.a.w. de in-museum-ervaring. Maar we zijn evenzeer hard aan het werk aan een veelzijdige desktop-versie. Tot het zover is vind je hier deze tussenversie.

M HKA goes digital

Embracing the possibilities of new media, M HKA is making a particular effort to share its knowledge and give art the framework it deserves.

We are currently focusing on the experience in the museum with this application for smartphones and tablets. In the future this will also lead to a versatile desktop version, which is now still in its construction phase.

Ensemble: Chapter 7: Autobiography, 1958–1980s, Antwerp-Los Angeles / Hoofdstuk 7: Autobiografie / Chapitre 7: Autobiographie

©image: M HKA

In 1969, Byars wrote 1/2 an Autobiography while seated on a chair in Wide White Space Gallery. This was a collection of disparate sentences, such as ‘you reading my big sample is one of my works’, in which an anti-confessional Byars played with our biographical reflex towards artists and poets, which Roland Barthes had recently displayed in The Death of the Author (1967).

In 1970, Byars completed another Autobiography, a short 16mm film containing nothing but black. Byars, dressed in white, emerges very briefly just before the 24th second. Although the notion of autobiography is very much present in his oeuvre, Byars shunned biographical details and built a strategy of ephemeral presences and concealing costumes. Like a prompter under the stage, he would whisper what we already knew but had forgotten for a moment.

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Works

>James Lee Byars, Autobiography, 1970.Video, 16 mm film transferred onto video, black and white, 00:10:00.

>James Lee Byars, The Wings for Writing, 1972.Object, red silk cuffs with feathers, 2 x (48 x 88 cm).

>James Lee Byars, A and B you ready to do some Fant. Show?, Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp 1973, 1973.Other, paper invitation card, 12 x 15.7 cm.

>James Lee Byars, The Name of the Artist, 1974.Installation, 3 double-sided pieces, black wrinkled tissue paper, glass, wooden frame, 140 x 42.5 cm, 2 x (Ø 42.5 cm).

>James Lee Byars, Einstein, Stein and Wittgenstein, 1984-1989.Sculpture, gold-painted furka stones, 8 x 20 x 13.5 cm, 12 x 14 x 12 cm, 10.5 x 23.5 x 16.5 cm.

>James Lee Byars, Beauty Goes Avantgarde, 1986.Print, print on paper, 52.5 x 38.2 cm.