Philippe Van Cauteren

Angel Vergara’s work tests the limits of art and reality by questioning the way the contemporary image shapes the intermingled public and private spheres—as well as our own experience Angel Vergara’s (b. 1958; based in Brussels) work is a continued investigation into the power of the image. By means of performances, videos, installations, paintings and drawings, he tests the limits of art and reality. Each of his works is an attempt to break through the image and to make its impact on an aesthetic as well as a sociocultural and political level. Thus, Vergara creates a new, suspended reality, grown from the artist’s personal dialogue with reality and with the image by which it has already been transformed. Decontextualised images of reality are mediated by the artist and transformed into art, encouraging the viewer to question their way of perceiving the everyday as well as the way it is presented to them in images. Vergara’s art disorients and disconcerts the viewer. It questions what is known and opens paths to new modes of signification. Accompanying the 2023 retrospective exhibition “In the Instant” that the MACS is dedicating to Angel Vergara, this important book reviews the career of the Belgian artist and highlights the close relationship between his painting and the cinematic medium. Distributed for Mercatorfonds Exhibition Schedule: 02.11.2022–02.06.2023 Outside installation. Musée de la batellerie—Conflans Sainte Honorine, France. 24.11.2022–19.03.2023 Photo Brut - Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels 23.04.2023–08.10.2023 Angel Vergara. In a Moment. Monographic exhibition. MAC’s in Mons, Belgium.

Philippe Van Cauteren, director of the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S. M. A. K.) in Ghent, has for many years written letters to artists all over the world. He directs his thoughts in a very personal manner to artists who inspire him. Van Cauteren's letters are written in a straightforward and accessible way; at times, they even verge on the poetic. They offer an insight into how a curator experiences and interprets art, and provide a clear and succinct introduction to the work of each artist to whom he writes. This richly illustrated book contains more than 100 letters. In an introductory manifesto - a final letter to Jan Hoet, his predecessor and the founder of S. M. A. K. - Van Cauteren also describes the 'ideal museum of the future'. This book is a reflection of the contemporary cultural arena, the roles of a museum and an artist within this arena and the way in which diverse parties can collaborate constructively. It features letters to, among others, Michaël Borremans, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jan Fabre, Adrian Ghenie, Jan Hoet, Mark Manders, Thomas Ruff, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Ed Templeton, Rinus Van de Velde and Vincent van Gogh.