Artists: Boy Vereecken (With works by Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Jana Euler, Ezio Gribaudo, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Annette Kelm, Marlie Mul, Peter Wächtler)
Exhibition title: Back Matter
Venue: MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome, Italy
Date: February 3 – June 13, 2021
Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist and MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
Boy Vereecken is the first international graphic designer invited to reinterpret his practice in the IN-DESIGN section, the monographic column of Museum for Preventive Imagination devoted to the languages of graphic design.
The exhibition presents the work of the Belgian editorial designer and art director by shedding light on his versatile approach as well as the influences of the various international institutions and artistic personalities with which he collaborates.
In this self-portrait, across publishing projects and visual identities a method emerges that might be called “As Found”, to borrow a term used by the English architects Alison and Peter Smithson to indicate a way of selecting, remixing and editing of already existing materials. This approach embraces a flexible viewpoint on visual identity, capable of creating narratives in the form of communication. As Vereecken puts it, “the identity is not represented through a fixed entity, nor does it communicate to a single public”.
The title Back Matter refers to all the parts which, with different functions and forms, come after the central body of a publication, such as an epilogue, an afterword, an appendix, a colophon or a glossary. The term, defining the material and narrative body that can offer reflections a posteriori on the content of a book, is utilized metaphorically in this case, in relation to ten years of work by Boy Vereecken.
The designer has chosen to transform the exhibition space into one whose walls present pages and covers of publications and other printed matter of his own design. In this transposition, the pages undergo enlargements in scale based on the real dimensions of their content, while the reproductions of design objects and works of art are replaced by their originals, as if they were exploding in three dimensions from the walls to offer a new way of being experienced.
Boy Vereecken (Ghent, 1982) is a designer with an international, independent practice in Brussels. Founded in 2010, his agency mainly focuses on printing, art direction and site-specific installations. Vereecken has created projects and visual identities for institutions such as: KIOSK, Ghent; La Loge, Brussels; nona arts centre, Mechelen; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. Recent collaborations as an editor and designer include: Annette Kelm, Tomato Target (Sternberg Press, 2020); Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Body of Work (Walter Koenig Books, 2019); Ezio Gribaudo, Logogrifo, Palm Tree, Cactus, de Chirico, Dino, Pinocchio & Publishing (Nero Editions, 2019); Jos de Gruyter & Harald Tys, Mondo Cane (Mercatorfonds, 2019); Laura Herman & Henry Andersen, The Floor is Uneven. Does it Slope? On Gins & Arakawa (Mousse Publishing, 2019); Jana Euler, Where the Energy Comes From (Cabinet Gallery, Galerie Neu Dependance, 2017); Peter Wächtler, Jolly Rogers (Sternberg Press, 2017). In 2019 he completed the design and art direction for the Belgian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition, and for the inaugural edition of Booked: Tai Kwun Contemporary’s Hong Kong Art Book Fair. Presently Vereecken is the art director for the project Tell me about yesterday tomorrow for NS-Dokumentationszentrum München.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Museo per l’Immaginazione Preventiva, MACRO 2021. Photo credit Agnese Bedini e Melania Dalle Grave di DSL Studio
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Contract Chair, 2012. Two pieces, stainless steel. Courtesy the artist, MANIERA, Brussels. Ezio Gribaudo, Omaggio a de Chirico, 1968. Oil and acrylic on canvas. Ezio Gribaudo Collection. Marlie Mul, Hammer (red); Hammer (green), 2015. Flexible silicone. Courtesy the artist, Croy Nielsen, Vienna. Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Mondo Cane (Sateri), 2019. Mechanized puppet, mixed media, 3D printed heads coated in plaster, metal, fabric, clothes. Courtesy the artists, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Annette Kelm, Percent for Art, 2013. C-print, frames. Courtesy the artist, KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, London, Tokyo. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Jana Euler, Where the energy comes from 5, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy the artist. Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Stoneware mural toilet, 2015. High fired stoneware. Courtesy the artists, Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Jana Euler, Where the energy comes from 5, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy the artist. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Contract Chair, 2012. Two pieces, stainless steel. Courtesy the artist, MANIERA, Brussels. Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Mondo Cane (Sateri), 2019. Mechanized puppet, mixed media, 3D printed heads coated in plaster, metal, fabric, clothes. Courtesy the artists, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Marlie Mul, Hammer (red), 2015. Flexible silicone. Courtesy the artist, Croy Nielsen, Vienna. Marlie Mul, Hammer (green), 2015. Flexible silicone. Courtesy the artist, Croy Nielsen, Vienna. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Mondo Cane (Sateri), 2019. Mechanized puppet, mixed media, 3D printed heads coated in plaster, metal, fabric, clothes. Courtesy the artists, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Peter Wächtler, Untitled (Otter), 2015. Bronze. Private collection. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Annette Kelm, Percent for Art, 2013. C-print, frames. Courtesy the artist, KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, London, Tokyo. Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Mondo Cane (Sateri), 2019. Mechanized puppet, mixed media, 3D printed heads coated in plaster, metal, fabric, clothes. Courtesy the artists, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Contract Chair, 2012. Two pieces, stainless steel. Courtesy the artist, MANIERA, Brussels. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Contract Chair, 2012. Two pieces, stainless steel. Courtesy the artist, MANIERA, Brussels. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Detail. Ezio Gribaudo, Omaggio a de Chirico, 1968. Oil and acrylic on canvas. Ezio Gribaudo Collection. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Detail. Signature Strength, edited by Boy Vereecken, Sternberg Press 2016. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
IN-DESIGN, Boy Vereecken, Back Matter. Exhibition view. Marlie Mul, Hammer (red), 2015. Flexible silicone. Marlie Mul, Hammer (green), 2015. Flexible silicone. Courtesy the artist, Croy Nielsen, Vienna. Museum for Preventive Imagination, MACRO 2021. Photo credit: Agnese Bedini and Melania Dalle Grave of DSL Studio.
