Artists: Becky Beasley, Mike Bouchet, René Daniëls, D.D. Trans, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Lieve D’hondt, Lili Dujourie, Matias Faldbakken, Mekhitar Garabedian with Céline Butaye, Rodney Graham, Wade Guyton, Roni Horn, Moshekwa Langa, Manfred Pernice, Joe Scanlan, Kelly Schacht, Thomas Schütte, Josef Strau, Richard Venlet, Jan Vercruysse, Didier Vermeiren, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Stephen Wilks, Haegue Yang
Exhibition title: After all, a collection is only human
Curated by: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in collaboration with Richard Venlet
Venue: Villa Vandenbussche, Tielt, Belgium
Date: May 9 – June 20, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
Note: Exhibition’s floor plan is available here
From 9 May to 20 June 2021 Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens presents the group exhibition After all, a collection is only human, with works from five Flemish private collections that have never before been shown together.
The exhibition takes place in the Villa Vandenbussche in Tielt, an exceptional heritage house built in 1969 and designed by Konstrukto (Georges Vandenbussche & Marc Verkest) as a private residence for co-founder Georges Vandenbussche. It was listed as a monument in 2008.
In this unique home, the exhibition brings together works by, among others, René Daniëls, D.D. Trans, Lieve D’hondt, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Lili Dujourie, Manfred Pernice, Kelly Schacht and Jan Vercruysse, and addresses the relation between private and public.
The exhibition makes an explicit architectural connection between the Konstrukto house, the museum’s own modernist building (Erik Van Biervliet, 1967), which is currently under renovation, the Woning Van Wassenhove (Juliaan Lampens, 1974), which is managed by MDD, and the private sphere of the collectors.
After all, a collection is only human is an output of the Centre for Private Collections in Flanders initiated by Stichting Mevr. Jules Dhondt-Dhaenens to research and promote the history and practice of private art collecting in Flanders.
MDD continues its tradition of researching and highlighting important private collections as in Schöne Sentimenten (2019), Collectie Collection Jeanne & Charles Vandenhove (2013), Verzameling Tony Herbert (2011), When the mood strikes…
Collectie Wilfried & Yannicke Cooreman (2008), and the Verzameling Roger en Hilda Matthys-Colle (2007). In 2020, MDD and MER published the book Maisons d’art moderne, about the history of private art collections in Belgium post-1945, by the late Tanguy Eeckhout.
The exhibition is curated in collaboration with Richard Venlet, as part of his ongoing conversation with MDD and realised with thanks to Kristof Welleman and Frederic Rozier of ArchitectenWoning and the Vandenbussche Family.
