encyclopedia

This encyclopedia offers a splendid and wildly recommendable insight in the world of Croxhapox, combining trivial pursuit and serious matter. The entries have been mostly written in Dutch but quite a few have been translated. If you want the Dutch original, change your choice of language and go to the 'encyclopedie'.

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D'hondt, Lieve

INTIMACY VERSUS CRASH [INTIMITEIT VERSUS CRASH] - Luk Lambrecht, De Morgen 23 April 1999. Galerie Croxhapox in Ghent keeps up a devellish pace with one new exhibition a month. This time, Croxhapox driving force and artist Hans van Heirseele presents two ensembles in counterpoint. The work of American artist Wendy Hirschberg (°1955) is one of them and consists of smallish, rather 'nice' and traditionally presented assemblages. --- Different and a lot better is the show by Ghent artist Lieve D'hondt (°1963). It consists of a series of magnificent collages and drawings referring to a continuous recycling of images. They originate in her quite large oeuvre and are combined with material from popular magazines. Centrally to her exhibition is a silent video where the sentences 'What about time' and 'What about silence' appear over and over again. The harsh whiteimageless stills in between the sentences she considers to be just a light, a lamp, or simply a white screen. In a corner of the room is a chair where one can reflect on the meaning of those eloquent, 'minimal' phrases./ D'hondt's production doesn't aim at spectacular experiences but lets so to speak implode a wide range of images, resulting in an epos about her art and about worldly things like swimming pools or hotel rooms. She sticks copied sequences from previous video works on large sheets, nicely lined up like a new concatenation of b/w images. In this way, she creates a distance between this and her artistic past./ This strategy even becomes more clear in those pieces where she shows schematical reductions of video images as drawings with a touch of pseudo science. D'hondt analyses and registers very precisely and thematically what she sees in her videos. She combines that information with words or fragments of words.  Art is about codes - it is fascinating to explore these codes and sometimes even to crack them./ One of her most astounding works is a drawing which is meant to become an impressive wall painting. A large metal plate then turns into the carrier of a transparant perspex wing which unfolds in space like a book. Six red shapes around that work emphasize its spatiality. A quote on the magnificent drawing speaks to anyone's imagination: 't was certain because of the distance. In these works D'hondt testifies to her talent for reaching subtle layers of meaning with a minimum of means. (LL)

crox 51, OPEN DEUREN (1996). A venue in Toekomststraat.
crox 95, drawings and video collages (1999). Review Luk Lambrecht (DM) [see above]. The other solo presentation, in the basement, is a project by Wendy Hirschberg (US).
crox 124, installation window (2004). Location: Onderstraat 26.
crox 145-I, BASICS 2 (2005). ==>still life
crox 145-II, BASICS 2 (2006). Sequel abbey Maagededale, Oudenaarde.
crox-card nr 40, Ki (2006).
crox 188, BRAINBOX unit 5. With Pieter Vermeersch and Eva-Maria Bogaert. Reviews in H-art and Zone 09. 

D'Hondt, Mieja

1996, Open Deuren. Location 73, Nijverheidsstraat 12. Sculptures. The folder says: Yasmina, s'éloigne, femme noire qui porte en elle tous les rêves d'hommes et leurs chagrins aussi. [Yasmina, distancing herself, black woman carrying within her all men's dreams and sorrows.]

D'Hondt, Vincent

Composer. Wrote the score for 'Kan jeg fotografere med blitz?' by Johan De Wilde under the alias of Badebukse. > Badebukse.

Dabramski, Jamez Dean

2006. crox 185-II, My Modern Holocaust. Presentatie in de zaal achterin, simultaan met projecten van CarianaCarianne (US) en Debra Tolchsinky (US). Speciaal voor de presentatie van JDD wordt een smalle gang ontworpen. De projectcluster heeft ook nog presentaties van Sarah Westphal (DE) en Dianna Frid (CA). Tijdens de openingsavond schuift Dabramski mee in als 4de man van The Singing Painters. Concert met een rits nieuwe songs. JDD voegt een turbulente mix van sound en noise toe.
Schuift ook mee in tijdens een van de betere TSP-performances, in Voorkamer Lier. Het is tijdens dit concert dat JDD de muzikale kwaliteiten van George W Bush introduceert.
Cultuurmarkt 2006. Performances op de Kouter en in de Veldstraat.
Performance tijdens de openingsavond van Brainbox 1#4.
2007. crox 291-I, KASKweek, afstudeerproject MMV. In de corridor zorgen JJD en Kwinten Vercaemer voor een oorverdovend concert, wat niet meteen in de smaak valt.

Daem, Geertrui

1996. OPEN DEUREN [OPEN DOORS], crox 51. 'and moreover, one could let a part of one's home be used by the artists Croxhapox had invited. Among the fifty artists whom Croxhapox had placed are birds of very different plumage. Sometimes the boundaries of the visual arts are crossed, as is the case with Geertrui Daem. She reads from her own work, all be all only on 5 and 6 October, in Nijverheidsstraat nr. 78.' From 'Kunst van deur tot deur', (EB), De Morgen, Friday 27 September.

dagelijks bestuur

Term uit de beginperiode van Croxhapox vzw die alleen voorkomt in de vroegste versie van de statuten. Het dagelijks bestuur is op dat moment Frank Van den Eeckhout en Hans van Heirseele. Later, van 1994 tot 1999, is het Hans van Heirseele en Kristel De Buck. Hoe het er van oktober 1999 tot eind 2000 aan toegaat, is niet helemaal duidelijk. In de nieuwe statuten, gedeponeerd in 2006, komt de term niet langer voor.
2005-2007: Hans van Heirseele, Joris Van der Borght.
Herfst 2007: Frank Van den Eeckhout, Hans van Heirseele.
2008-2009: Hans van Heirseele.
2010-2011: Laura van, Marc Coene, Stefaan Van Ryssen.
2012: Laura van, Joris Van der Borght, Jelle Clarisse.

David, Lieven (BE)

Author of 'En Passant', one of the texts included in the catalogue of crox 18, En Passant 25 installation windows. The other text is by Hugo De Boom.

In 1913 a painter, and not a minor one at that, introduced his exhibition in this way: 'Because it is bound to the body, the soul is touched by the senses - the experience. Whatever is felt is also a bridge between the material and the immaterial. And it is a bridge between the immaterial and the material. So each work of art has two sides: the inner and the outer side.'
So have all introductions: knit one, purl one.
Another Russian, in the same year:
'The representation of an object - objectivity as goal of representation - is of no matter to art. Though the fact of representing anything doesn't exclude the artwork being of the highest order.' 

These statements are surely worth of careful consideration and testify to an uncommon insight in the fragile proces of communication between the artist, his medium and the public even though it isn't quite this kind of communication which is aimed at in this exhibition. 

In search of the right type of communication one should rather start from the following proposition: During a surge of diligence, the marketing department at Popla's has figured out that a person spends a year and a half on the toilet during a lifetime. 

This was used as an argument to promote better toilet paper.
A year and a half, it takes a better man to ignore it.

In the same vain, a person spends about eight yeas out in the street. And only modest paths have been followed to make life moe agreeable for him in that respect: broader pavements left and right, dogs refraining from dropping it on the cobbles and a sudden shop window worthy of being glanced into. 
Among other needs, this is what this initiative is catering for. 

In Schepenhuisstraat, an alley between Hoogpoort and Onderstraat, at number 33 as I recall, one of the first installation windows was created. (Later on, a second one was to be found in Perkamentstraat - it is still there - but we are only concerned about the first one here.)

One day, seven or eight years ago, a fifty-ish woman walked down the street to Onderstraat, and so she passed that spot. In her left hand she was carrying a Big Shopper bag, and in her right she had a bicycle wheel. She glanced to the left into the window where a large number of elephants were arragend in military fashion. Her pace slowed and she thought: 'tiens'. A hesitant sun illuminated the spot where a four star hotel would soon be built. It glittered in the puddles. The ladu blinked, in two minds whether to stand still and follow her impulse to watch what had caught her eye. 

It happened: the window took her over. She switched the Big Shopper from left to right and leaned on the bicycle wheel. Her eyes grew bigger and her facial muscles distracted, a quarter of a smile appeared. 

So that's it, erm, that's it entirely. Though the fact of representing anything doesn't exclude the artwork being of the highest order.

Footnotes:

Wassili Kandinsky, as cited by H. Read, 'Der Sturm', 11 Aug. 1913. Read has the pluck to comment on this with: 'a clear though somewhat clumsy definition.'
Kasimir Malevich, 'Suprematisme', 1913.
Michael Ogilvy, Essay about marketing, no title, 1990.

Davies, Peter Maxwell (GB)

THE MEDIUM, monodrama for mezzo. Project by Els Mondelaers. March 2007, crox 204.

DD Trans

2006. Basics 2, sequel. Groepsproject in Abdij Maagdedale. Aan het project nemen 90 kunstenaars deel. DD Trans presenteert een ongeschonden schetsboek en levert er ook een potlood bij.
2007. crox 277, Frans-Belgisch groepsproject. Dit keer presenteert DD Trans een klimplant - die zich aan een lampadair heeft vastgehecht - en een wolkenfoto. Met de wolk zit het dubbel: op de voorgrond is een naakte hand, de rechterhand van DD Trans. Tussen wijs- en middelvinger steekt een sigaret.
Van de Frans-Belgische groep zijn Bart Vandevijvere, Brahim Bachiri en DD Trans de enigen die geen instalraam realiseren op de gebruikelijke locatie, Onderstraat 26.

De Baere, Bart
One of 17 people who sent in a contribution for the KNUTS project (1992). The project was aborted because of far too few and far too little interesting contributions. 

see KNUTS

De Boom, Hugo

Author of Steps, Paces, Looking [Stappen, Passen, Kijken], the second preface to the En Passant catalogue (1991):

(fragments of a myth)

I.

Urbanisation leads to a neutralised, homgenised space, and each activity within its reification -the city- is through the usage of specific codes assigned a particular time-space.

In time as much as in space, ghetto's get built - mutatis mutandis. The city is nothing but a concatenation of  islets (living space, workfloor, playground, cemetary), whoever enters an isle is assigned a function. (Crossing the shop threshold turns one into a customer).

 

II.

The ghetto of the shop windows: concentrated in space and perimetered by parallel streets where the only colour comes from window shutters and wall cancer.

A remarkable updraught of shopping centers, all but alien to man and still suggesting the differentiating signs and symbols. Demonstrating lifestyle. Ornament and concealment.

 

III.

The city itself, according to Baudrillard, is no longer a production unit but a wildly complex conglomerate of  code systems, complementary, contradictory and mutually interacting. 

A polygon of sigsn, media, codes. A muddle, a mess, a clutter. 

Solely on such a constellation -when real production in the city is replaced by media leading to the assimilation of signs- a project like 'En Passant' is possible and meaningful.

The same goes for a previous project where posters where distributed round the city.  (Copy Art Project)

A specific space (and Croxhapox doesn't have one) for art is not necessary, the street can take the role of museum. Ephemere, but no less conspicuous. 

Walter Benjamin already saw that through the levelling influence of the city its aura gets lost. I.e. the authentic communication between the subject of the gaze and the object looked at doesn't exist anymore. 

Art still has the connotation to promote this interrelation; to blow away the fumes and to lay bare the essence of things (le parti pris des choses), without paper constructs.

Fortunately, 'En Passant' isn't so presumptious.

De Brabandere, Mario

crox 70: Schilderkunst Hedendaags Belgisch (1997). One out of 25 artists participating in this project.

crox 110, BASICS 1 (2003). Drawings, sketches, studies. Mario De Brabandere contributes three pencil drawings made during his  Campo Santo project in 1996.

crox 175-III: la mère de dieu fait par le fils lui-même; solo project in the media space (May-June 2006 [The mother of god made by the son, himself]). Sculpture assembled with object trouvé materials; height approx. 240cm; anchored into the wall immediately opposite the entrance to the media space. The sculpture is reminiscent of the pastoral figures in the later work of Kasimir Malevich.

crox 145-II, BASICS 2 (2006, sequel Abbey Maagdendale). MDB contributes 3 objects in, one is a wooden crate with the collection of  Martha De Brabandere, Mario's dog.

Participating in Five Collaborations, the project of Alan Smith (January 2007).

Text by Hans van Heirseele, published in a catalogue of the Centre for Culture of St. Amandsberg. (1997), on Mario De Brabandere: MARIO DE BRABANDERE is one of those painters Georges Perros is talking about in Papiers Collés./ He is a genuine painter. He certainly is one of those who don't get bored when painting./ I recently met Mario in the greens market./ A Sunday, one of those Sundays, when danger hides round each corner. Suddenly and before we even noticed boredom kicks in. Mario hadn't recognised me. I walked towards him. He wanted to leg it but I caught up with him. I grabbed him in the collar of his overalls and lifted him a few centimeters off the ground. This is definitely a good way to make sure to have a good conversation with someone. / Hey! Well! Mario, of all people! I shouted./ What what, he cursed./ Glad to bump into you! I shouted again and gave our celebrated friend a shove so his casket rolled on the cobbles all the way to the closest bus stop. Verily, one has to know how to deal with those painters of ours. Listen carefully, buddy! I shouted. I'm gonna tell you something, listen! I shouted again, and hit'im square in the gob. Come on, out with it, tell me, do you ever get bored eh? well, hey, you know, you can tell me!/ Hans, man, I really never get bored, hardly ever, sure, he said./ And if you would let go of me now, I'll tell you how that is./ God, just as well, it had been nice. I let go of him. Usually I don't. I'm not easily intimidated. But it happens. / You see, Hans, he said, when I get bored, on occasion, I try to make the best of it. You see, Hans, sometimes those are the great times./ And then he sold me./ Jesusmaryjoseph, I'm still not back on my feet again. (October 1997)

De Bruyn, Floris

-->Zondagsdenkers, De

De Bruyn, Guido

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En Passant, made for Terzake, an art programme of BRT (1991). Camera man is the father of Jan De Cock, with whom Guido has often collaborated.

Look, thought the founders of Croxhapox (a galery without galery, because of the blue stone of course): if the mountain doesn't come to Samson, Samson goes to the mountain. A truly edifying thought: let a number of x artists make >installations in shop windows. The spontaneous watching reflex of the common man will kick in and do the rest. A little bit of contemporary art is always welcome. En passant. “You just have to think of it, isn't it sir."

De Clercq, Marc

crox 51 (Open Deuren/photos), Autumn 1996. Eric Bracke, De Morgen 27 September 1996: *We print one of the works of Marc De Clercq allongside this article. The photographer registered the spontaneous behaviour in the inner circle of a family in the Wolterslaan. His life-sized pictures will be presented there at number 101 during Open Deuren. De Clercq counts on the special tension between the images and the particular, exceptional behaviour of Caroline, Seger and Marie when they are host to unknown visitors.  

crox 78 (1998). Photo project with Frederik Cornelis and Anja Hellebaut. Marc produces some four B/W picture cards, among which one with a work by Frederik and one by Anja.

crox 188, Brainbox (2006). Spoor 2. MDC produces a portrait photo from each artist participating in the project. He uses a technical camera. From unit 3 he starts documenting the project itself.  

Joins the General assembly in 2007 and gets elected a member of the Board  some months afterwards, together with lknur Cegniz and Marc Coene.

Early April 2007 publication of crox cards 51 and 52 documenting the 6th Brainbox unit.

De Cock, Jan

crox 76. Introduction with a very sad pre-installation. [Inleiding met een treurige vooropstelling]. April 1998
crox-card 14: The Industry of Human Happiness. [De Nijverheid van het Menselijke Geluk] 1999
crox 102. Carte Blanche. Crox-project on location: CC Strombeek-Bever. A tryptich: Anton Cotteleer, Dirk Zoete and Jan De Cock. Februari 2000 >Byll

De Fossé, Liesbeth

2007. crox 216. Foto's. Eerste project van de in Parijs wonende Liesbeth De Fossé (BE). Voorlaatste project in wat op dat moment 'crox2' is, een ruimte vlak naast het atelier van Stief Desmet. LDF verplaatst de bijna tot het plafond reikende muur die Dirk Zoete gebouwd had. De wand komt diagonaal in de ruimte en zorgt achterin voor een konische doorgang waar ze een reeks in Boston gemaakte foto's presenteert. In de zaal zelf komen een aantal grote, semi-panoramische foto's. Crox-card nr 60 (2007): Fig. 0603002.

De Gentenaar

[De Gentenaar is the local Ghent edition of a Dutch speaking newspaper (de Standaard)]

crox 11 Daniël Libens > December 1990/ review Dirk >Pültau

crox 13 Sjoerd Paridaen > February 1991/ Dirk >Pültau

crox 18 En Passant > Autumn 1991/ review Dirk >Pültau

crox 24 Edwin Carels > January  1995/ Dirk >Pültau

crox 27 Hans van Heirseele > May 1995/ Dirk >Pültau

crox 30 Maria Blondeel (installation window) > October 1995

crox 51 Open Deuren > September 1996

crox 51 Open Deuren > October 1996

crox 177 Macharius project > May 2006

De Leener, Hugo

crox 4, solo project - nothing (April 1990).

crox 18, En Passant - location 2, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 84 (September 1991).

crox 51, Open Deuren (1996).

Installation window May 2006, location Onderstraat 26.

 

The first contribution of Hugo De Leener (crox 4, mei 1990) comes to nothing. Frank and Hans document this nothing, even something which is nothing needs to be documented. There is indeed a video of crox 4. 

For his second solo project and his participation in group projects like En Passant and Open Deuren he contributes practically identical work. There are internal variations within the works.

 

De Meester, Karel

crox 58, solo project - January 1997.

crox 70, Schilderkunst Hedendaags Belgisch - November 1997.

Crox 58 happens just a few weeks after the first visit of KDM to croxhapox, at that time in Aannemersstraat. He's at the top of the category 'at short notice' where he is preceded only by Tim Onderbeke (2006) and the duo Smith-Buckland (2005).

For his solo project Karel makes a series of black paintings, acrylic on plastic, showing white signs.

>sacro cranio

De Morgen

crox 22 Herr Seele > October 1994/ article
Eric >Bracke

crox
36+37 Niblock-Brand-Devens >
January1996/ review Luk >Lambrecht

crox 51 open deuren [open doors] > September
1996/ review Eric >Bracke

crox 70 painting contemporary Belgian > November
1997/ review Luk >Lambrecht

yearly
overview 1997 January 1998/ article
Luk Lambrecht

Herr
Seele in croxhapox-format January
1999/ review LVDS

crox
94+95 Wendy Hirschberg, Lieve
D'hondt/ review Lambrecht

crox 96 Philippe Vandenberg, Sylvain Cosijns/ review
C. Vuegen

crox 96 Philippe
Vandenberg, Sylvain Cosijns/ Eric >Bracke

In the
new millenium De Morgen [one of two Dutch language Belgian ‘quality’
newspapers] apparently is interested only in mainstream and museum projects. Organisations
such as Voorkamer or Croxhapox no longer seem to be worthwhile. Ironically, in
the mid nineties projects by Borremans and De Cock weren’t even reviewed; De
Cock and Borremans weren’t sufficiently famous. De Morgen wasn’t
interested. Nowadays, if one calls the culture desk,
they even haven’t heard of Croxhapox. Logical, De Morgen is by now nothing more
or even less than the semi-intellectual equivalent of Het Nieuwsblad [Dutch
language Belgian tabloid].

HERR SEELE IN CROXHAPOX-FORMAT - LVDS (Metro, weekly magazine
of De Morgen), 27 January 1999. I
arrive when no one in their right mind would even consider visiting a gallery.
Eventually, the door is open, as it probably is all day. From the back of the
back kitchen comes the voice of someone who apparently is taking a late quick
breakfast. Pleased to meet you. The person I greet is the spit image
of Herr Seele. You couldn’t have expected otherwise…

 

De Neef, Dirk
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crox 26, solo project - March 1995. Photos.

crox 48, installation window (Onderstraat 26) - June 1996.

crox 51, Open Deuren - Autumn 1996.

Introduces Patricia Smith (US) and Antje Dorn (D). Both have solo projects in 1995. Via the first one, a.o. Thomas Broadbent comes to Belgium, in 1996, via the second, Thomas Hauser (1997), Gosbert Adler (1996), Thomas Böing (1999-2006) a,d Stu Mead (2004).

DDN takes care of the ectachromes of the works in the second and third series of crox cards (1998-1999).

>Urk Piw - opening speech of crox 26

de Patol, Aymeric (FR)

Aymeric de Patol, geluidstechnicus. Werkt vaak samen met Yannick Franck (Idiosyncratics). Tijdens zomer 2011 en zomer 2011 gebruiken ze de zaal voorin als opnamestudio.

vendredi 12/08/11 (fragment)

Aymeric assis dans le mediaroom devant un STUDER années soixantes. Inscrit sur son visage les mots silence, pas de bruit, ne faire aucun brut.
LES CLOCHES SONNENT. Yannick, paysagiste dans des courants de sons vastes, sonores, obscures. Un paysage déformé, troublant, un vide énorme comme dans le désert, sans repos, extase du vide.
Le Studer, zegt Aymeric, - 'oup'..., de opname is net afgelopen, '... c'est vraiment le top, un son magnifique.'
'C'est bien dans la boîte?' lui demande Yannick.
'Ce'st très bien dans le boîte, très granulé.' Ils y avaient toutes sortes de sonorités. Her en der staan microfoons opgesteld. Een bladzijde omdraaien in het notitieboekje: quelle merde de bruit épouvantable - dan het nagelvijltje bovenhalen, très très doucement...

De Ranter, Jules (BE)

1991, En Passant 25 installation windows. Location 15: Trommelstraat 4. One of the shop windows of Double Face, a clothing shop. On the left hand page in the catalogue, there is a handwritten reference to what probably is the title of the presentation: INABSTRACTO.

de Roder, Vincent

crox 51, Open Doors - Autumn 1996. Venue 92. Paintings.

crox 70, Schilderkunst Hedendaags Belgisch - 1997.

Publication of croxcard NR 18 (1999). Acryl on canvas, untitled.

crox 194, WELD - November-December 2006.

WELD is the artist's collective of Jan Wiels & Vincent de Roder. The WELD-project in crox2, during the finale of the first edition of BRAINBOX in crox3, is the first collaboration of both artists. Starting point is the space itself: a surface of 10,5 by 11m, the high walls, the single buttress and the mdf-wall separating crox2 from the atelier of Stief Desmet. WELD works in a carefully considered and transparant manner even though they thank a lot of the objects which end up in the project to serendipity or coincidence. Copers' swimming pool e.g., or the forms of leftover building materials which are reused as a module.

 

>Wiels

De Rudder, Nora

crox 18, En Passant (1991). Location 16, Sluizeken 29, milliner Sjapoo.

crox 198, Schervenluster (2007). Solo project in the cube.
De Rycke, Joris

2011. crox 368, residentie. De residentie, waarbij JDR zich toelegt op een presentatie van grafisch werk en foto's en experimenteert met alternatieve presentatiemogelijkheden, valt samen met projecten van Sjoerd van Leeuwen (NL), Simon Van Parys en Johanna Van Overmeir.

De Schutter, Rob

Na een crisisperiode besluit Rob om al het werk dat hij tijdens zijn studie aan het Kask heeft gemaakt wit te schilderen. Tijdens de nacht van 22 op 23 juni 2007 overnacht hij in de kubusruimte. Een belangrijk deel van de werken komt aan de muren van de kleine kubusruimte terecht, de rest wordt gedumpt. Hij schrijft een afscheidsbrief. De brief komt op een kleine, zwarte tafel terecht. Tijdens de vernissage (zaterdag 24 juni, 18u) blijft Rob wachten tot zijn promotor, Frank Vande Veire, opdaagt. Daarna gaat hij ervandoor.

Als je het zo bekijkt, is het toch weinig. Het is niet al mijn werk dat ik op heb gehanghen, maar toch het voornaamste deel. De dingen die ik niet opgaf voor ik eraan begon. Ben ik lui geweest? Nee, maar ik ben misschien wel laf geweest. Steeds opnieuw werd ik bang wanneer ik te lang op één spoor zat. Was het eindstation wel waar ik wilde zijn? Bij gebrek aan een antwoord werd het pas ter wereld gekomen idee laattijdig geaborteerd. Het rariteitenkabinet. Een stoffige, kleine, mysterieuze kamer. Een tentoonstelling van gedrochtelijke foetussen.

Het is mistig in mijn cel. Met een weinig moeite bereiken de foto's, schilderijen mijn oog. De zonden die ik aan deze vier woorden heb toevertrouwd lijken zacht te glimlachen. Even bekruipt me de angst dat mijn daad slechts een poging zal blijven. Ik probeer een volgende laag aan te brengen, ik veeg enkel de vorige laag weg. Ik zal geduld moeten oefenen. Laat ik de tijd even nemen om kort verslag te schrijven.

Langzaam raakt alles ondergesneeuwd. Het wordt kouder. Ik kijk naar mijn zelfportret. De echo kijkt mij van zijn kant - verwijtend? berustend? - aan. Ik weet niet of de echo enkel in miojn hoofd nog bestaat, of er werkelik nog iets rest. Ik ben ondertussen de tel kwijt geraakt. Ben ik aan een derden vierde, vijfde laag? Mijn geest raakt ook ondergesneeuwd. De volgende laag heeft geduld. De vologende laag zal de laag zijn. Dan zal alles wit zijn. Ik moet slapen.

Hoewel hij zichzelf al een hele tijd aankondigde, komt het toch onverwacht. Opluchting. Om een dramatischer woord te gebruiken: KATHARSIS.
Dit is mijn afscheid, mijn laatste woord. Rondom mij hebben mijn werken me in witte vrede verlaten. Na uren wachten, laag na laag, is alles weg. Geen echo blijft nog over, enkel mijn zelfportret heeft weerstand geboden. Ik wil het hem wel gunnen. Toen was ik nog naïef romantisch. De dezen wil ik graag ontzien, ze weten nog niet beter. Misschien kan je de wereld wel verbeteren, maar eerst moet je hem (haar) aanvaarden. En toch proberen te kennen. En kan kunst de wereld redden. Ik heb enkel mezelf willen redden. De werken, documentatie van mijn kunst probeerden enkel mij te redden. Het bewustzijn hiervan kwam later. Dat bewustzijn was vernietigend. Al mijn werk, mijn daden, mijn doorgaanse denken werd erdoor gedeconstrueerd. Het bewustzijn verbrijzelt mijn identiteit. Ook die identiteit is een constructie, een kunstwerk of liever: gekunsteld.
Ik ben te jong,
ik ben te oud om kunst te maken.
Mijn bewustzijn scherpt. Scherp genoeg ondertussen om al het voorgaande te dissecteren. Scherp genoeg om bewust te zijn van zijn botheid. Daarom moet er katharsis zijn. De pijn is kort en herbergt een grote beloning. Vrij zijn, niet van de omgeving, maar vrij zijn van 'mezelf'. Hoe minder er rest van mijn identiteit, hoe scherper mijn bewustzijn, hoe meer ik, ik ben. En dat ik is een zalig niets. Vermoedelijk. Mocht er dan toch iets resten - Griekse passies? - dan kan ik pas kunst maken. Maar enkel dan, na de aanvaarding. Het absolute individuele bewustzijn. Van daaruit vertrekt het echte leven, het opprechte zijn. Dat is mijn bestemming.
Dan pas wil ik kunst maken.
Dan pas kan ik kunst maken
en dan zal ik kunst maken.

De Smaele, Hugo

crox 38, solo project - February 1996. Drawings.

Several tens of sketch books and drawings grouped thematically, stuck to the wall with the iron ring mechanisms of ordners.   HDS regularly produces carefully edited publications from these works, privately. Two of these editions, one of them a carbon booklet, are in the crox-archive.

De Smet, Theresa

1996. crox 51, Open Deuren. Een locatie in de Wolterslaan. In de garage van het huis waar ze woont, presenteert Theresa De Smet tekeningen en schilderijen. Op zondag 6 oktober 1996 is er een concert, om 5 uur 's avonds. Driestemmige gezangen met Martine Huvenne, Chris Decraemer en Theresa De Smet.
Theresa is een van de vele kunstenaars die op dat moment in de Aannemersstraatbuurt wonen: Guy Vandeplassche, Alexandra Jacquet, Sjoerd Paridaen, Patrick Verlaak, Katrien Perquy, Beatrijs Lauwaert, Geertrui Daem, Martin Fryns, Joris Vermassen en Frank Clarysse en Els Dedecker. Ook Michaël Borremans woont vlakbij.