Event

M HKA, Antwerp

14 February 2025 - 25 May 2025

Hugo Roelandt (Aalst 1950 – Antwerp 2015) was a versatile artist, at various times a performer, installation artist, and photographer, who from the mid-1970s was a significant figure of the post-war avant-garde in Antwerp. Beginning his artistic career with presentations organised by the New Reform Gallery in Aalst which was renowned for performance, he became prominent as a pioneering performance artist. An influential figure amongst the artistic community, Roelandt also co-founded the radical alternative art space Montevideo (together with Annie Gentils) in Antwerp in 1981, and served as a non-conformist teacher in the photography department at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (1991 – 2010).

Roelandt did not confine himself to a single artistic genre or style. His performances, photographic series and interventions in public space were characterised by their diverse and sometimes contradictory nature. His many collaborations with artists, musicians, and scientists including Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Narcisse Tordoir, Ria Pacquée, Guillaume Bijl, Luc Steels and Danny Devos, among others, contrasted with his extensive series of self-portraits, demonstrating his multifaceted approach. While he was primarily identified as a performance artist, he was critical of the evolving nature of performance art. 

It was during the 1970s that Roelandt’s work evolved from photography towards performance. Having originally trained as a photographer, he produced numerous self-portraits, most notably in his Feelings series (1974) where he made exaggerated facial expressions for the camera. The significance of these works lay not just in the self-images but also in the incorporated performances. Representation was a recurring theme in Roelandt's philosophy. Early in his career, he developed a disdain for what he termed ‘Photo Photo’, which he associated with serious, clichéd representations that prioritised aesthetics over experimentation. He often stated that his works did not represent anything and were not realistic portrayals of the world. 

As Roelandt’s career progressed into the 1980s, he began developing what he termed as ‘post-performance’. This phase marked a shift away from active performance toward conceptual projects that involved machines and technology, such as telephone and answer-machine dialogues that underscored departures in theory and practice. In this time of key developments in post-modern thinking as well as in artificial intelligence research in Belgium, post-performance looked away from traditional performance and individualism, towards a systems approach that took over from the artist’s body.

Throughout his career, Roelandt sought to deconstruct traditional notions of art. He believed that art should reflect the complexities of contemporary life and societal issues rather than adhere to established aesthetic orthodoxy. Key themes in his practice included body image and gender norms, automation, urban space, and the bourgeois nature of the artistic field. His later works emphasised the role of the audience in experiencing art, suggesting that art could be a shared, participatory experience rather than a solitary appreciation of a finished product. Concurrently, further developments in his practice led to works with a more elemental quality, utilising water, wind and light. 

The End is a New Beginning is Hugo Roelandt’s first museum overview exhibition, and will mark ten years since his passing. M HKA and CKV received the complete archive of Hugo Roelandt, which includes key artworks, and an array of material including documentation, notes on unrealised projects, and his library that served as an educational resource. An artist resistant to the art market and bourgeois norms, his practice was never made with the intent of legacy in mind. The exhibition nevertheless takes on the challenge to examine the artist's practice, contextualising it in terms of the history of image and performance in Belgium. 

M HKA will also launch a comprehensive online platform serving as a database on Hugo Roelandt’s practice.

The exhibition is organised by M HKA in collaboration with Marc Holthof and Lydia Van Loock.