David Lamelas

1969

Photography, 80 x 100 cm.
Materials: colour photograph, matte print

Collection: Collection Yves Gevaert, Courtesy Jan Mot, Brussels.

A pioneer of conceptual art, David Lamelas used the venue of his first solo exhibition at the seminal Wide White Space in Antwerp in 1969 as a point of departure for the Antwerp series, hiring a professional photographer to shoot three main sites in the city between 9am. and 5pm. Each photograph documents Antwerp’s urban life and is marked with the exact time it was taken. Lamelas is telling the viewer that this place will never exactly be the same again. Things happen. The camera angle, the unspectacular choice of view and the notation of the time all generate the impression of a documentary, whose objectivity is under investigation, but they also reveal how framing and selection disrupt any sense of unity of time and space.

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The M HKA is a museum for contemporary art, film and visual culture in its widest sense. It is an open place of encounter for art, artists and the public. The M HKA aspires to play a leading role in Flanders and to extend its international profile by building upon Antwerp's avant-garde tradition. The M HKA bridges the relationship between artistic questions and wider societal issues, between the international and the regional, artists and public, tradition and innovation, reflection and presentation. Central here is the museum's collection with its ongoing acquisitions, as well as related areas of management and research.

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