Exhibition: 'Defacing' by Gert Jan Kocken

Location: STUK, Louvain (B)

Date: 11 February - 11 April 2009

The exhibition 'Defacing' by Gert Jan Kocken is presented until April 11 in the art centre STUK in Louvain. 'Defacing' originated in Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam where it was on show in the Fall of 2007. Kocken's work primarily deals with the image in relation to history and memory. In 'Defacing' he shows photographs of religious statues and paintings which were defaced during the Iconoclastic Fury in 16th (and partly 17th) century. The detailed, life-sized pictures, as shown in the white spaces of the STUK exhibition, portray the material quality of the damage even better than when one is faced with the real objects in their existing surroundings. But with 'Defacing' Kocken does not only draw attention to an important event in the religious history of North-Western Europe; for at the same time he raises questions relating to the power of the image today.

For more information about this exhibition see 'Defacing'

For more information concerning STUK go to www.stuk.be