Artefact Expo: The Act of Magic

Artefact Expo: The Act of Magic

21 February - 9 March 2017

Artefact is a themed exhibition and festival on contemporary visual arts, current events and societal challenges. In 2017, Artefact looks at the Act of Magic. What does magic mean today? Which role does it play as a social phenomenon? How is it used as a metaphor? And how do contemporary artists tackle the subject? From poetry to strategy, from magical object to obscure systems, from harmless distraction to manipulation: the artists in The Act of Magic investigate what enchants us today.  

Curators: Karen Verschooren (STUK) & Ils Huygens (Z33)

Artefact is an initiative of the Province Vlaams-Brabant i.c.w. Stad Leuven, and is  supported by KU Leuven, Culture Office and the Group Science & Technology in the context of the policy guideline ‘art and science’.

opening hours expo

21 Feb: 19:30-23:00 (opening)
22 Feb – 9 Mar: 
We–Sa  14:00-22:00 
Su–Tu  14:00-19:00

 

21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

Gestalt theory and Edwin Abbott’s satirical novel Flatland (1884), where the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world cannot recognise or perceive a three-dimensional object, leave, as...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

All Colours White explores the relationship between what is natural and artificial and the plurality of seemingly indivisible entities and experiences. It consists of a mechanism which projects red, blue and green light onto a canvas sculpture. The projection is a...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

And their 2nd and 3rd stage of vanishing in presence of an artefact and many international guests, in honor of the remarkable Harry Houdini and his conducted disappearances of Jenny the Elephant and an anonymous animal trainer at the world famous New York...

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THE LONG NOW, 2015

Verena Friedrich
21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

I do not suppose that there is any one in this room who has not occasionally blown a common soap-bubble, and while admiring the perfection of its form, and the marvelous brilliancy of its colours, wondered how it is that such a magnificent object...

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Deep are the Woods, 2016

Eric Arnal-Burtschy
24 FEB – 3 MAR 2017

Sans lumière, je ne suis rien
Et la lumière fut
, in Le Vif, 40, 7 oktober 2016

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21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

In Cultivating Probability, Marjolijn Dijkman presents a series of sculptures in a fictional anthropological display. The sculptures are inspired by a myriad of practices that...

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In Our Hands, 2015

Marjolijn Dijkman
21 FEB – 9 MAA

For the video installation In Our Hands, Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman investigated hand gestures used to predict, ward off or influence the future. The final choreography includes a range of gestures from diverse sources - from spiritual to political to...

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HEXEN 2.0, 2009-2011

Suzanne Treister
21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

The connections drawn within and among the cards are so mind-boggling to contemplate that it seems entirely appropriate to comprehend them within a magical system like the tarot.
The New York Times - Suzanne Treister: ‘Hexen 2.0’ -...

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Witches Cradles, 2009

Center for Tactical Magic
21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

Mixing Magic, Art & Social Engagement since 2000
CTM website

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21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

I am always in search of magic, as a way to escape mundanity. To fulfill this quest, I convoke fantasies and hallucinations. Sometimes, in everyday life, we still manage to perceive way-outs towards reverie.
Shana Moulton interviewed by Lia Rochas Paris, "Shana et...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

In the film Night Soil #1/ Fake Paradise by Dutch artist Melanie Bonajo, the viewer is introduced to the ritual of Ayahuasca, which originally springs from ancient Amazon traditions. During a ceremony, a psychedelic brew made of various plant infusions is...

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Mirror Pieces, 2014

Tim Etchells
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

In the work Mirror Pieces, artist Tim Etchells plays with the words optical illusions, political delusions, poetical confusions, in different set-ups. Without fixing its meaning, he prompts the visitor to think through the possible relations in the context...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

CIA MANUAL OF TRICKERY AND DECEPTION, 2009
THE GHOST ARMY, 2013
LEVITATING THE PENTAGON, 1967

The...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

If Karl Rove [political advisor to George W. Bush] has opportunistically misdirected the perceptions of a post-Baudrillardian, media-sated, and reality-disoriented electorate, then in so doing he has become a war magician for an era of permanent war...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

The British government’s head finance minister - known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer - performs a ritual before delivering his yearly financial statement to parliament. He leaves his official residence,...

elsewhere • expo • image

Stand Behind Me, 2013

Liz Magic Laser
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

For the video-installation/performance Stand Behind Me, American artist Liz Magic Laser worked with dancer Ariel Freedman to adapt oratorical gestures from 2013 speeches made by an international range of politicians. The performer turns her back to the...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

In Universal Keysan installation especially made for Artefact: The Act of Magic, five thousand “universal” handcuff keys hang on a wall in a formation that creates an optical illusion of two interlocking links. Visitors are invited to take...

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Linking & Unlinking, 2009

Center for Tactical Magic
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

What’s interesting about magic in all forms is that there is a sense of defying norms and creating exceptions through hidden knowledge and power. Like art, the worst kinds of magic fall flat on their promises and end up feeling delusional or boring...

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Zero Magic, 2015-2016

Goldin+Senneby
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

A magician creates illusions, making us see things that don’t exist, that are not really happening. The word magic originates from magush (Persian), meaning “to be able” or “to have power.” In Zero Magic, the magic trick takes place on the...

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Rogue Waves, 2015

Femke Herregraven
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

Financial markets and more specifically the practice of high frequency trading are the subject of the works Femke Herregraven presents in the context of Artefact. In her work, she gives these ultrafast financial transactions of computational trading a material form and physical...

expo • image • artefact
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

Financial markets and more specifically the practice of high frequency trading are the subject of the works Femke Herregraven presents in the context of Artefact. In her work, she gives these ultrafast financial transactions of computational trading a material form and physical...

expo • image • artefact
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

French collective RYBN.orgpresent Dataghost 2, a work which essentially questions the rationality of technology systems. Dataghost 2 is an...

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21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

In Ghost in the Cellan installation by the artist collective BCL, living heart cells function as a pars pro toto for the idea of the creation of a physical version of the popular Japanese character Hatsune Miku. This virtual idol made her debut in...

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Magic Shop, 2002

Jonathan Allen
21 FEB - 9 MAR 2017

Blinking slowly in the gallery window, Jonathan Allen’s magic shop sign acknowledges not only the white cube’s capacity to conceptually shape-shift to accommodate art’s constant re-definition, but also its more uncertain role as purveyor of...

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21 FEB – 9 MAR 2017

In The Finite State Fantasia, British artist and designer Tobias Revell creates an immersive installation visualizing the space mapping behaviour of an intelligent, but invisible, machine. In The Finite State Fantasia a mapping robot is...

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