Arts/Sciences #17: Frank Theys

Mercredi, 18 Février 2015 | 19:00

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Thinking 3 Cultures: Art, Science and Society

Pour cette première conférence Arts/Sciences de l'année, iMAL invite le réalisateur, metteur en scène et artiste visuel Frank Theys pour une présentation titrée Thinking 3 Cultures: Art, Science and Society.

Dans ce voyage philosophique, il parlera de ségrégation entre science et société comme fondation de notre société depuis le début des Temps Modernes. Comment ce clivage dans l'histoire de la philosophie des science a-t-il, au final, influencé la philosophie de l'Art Moderne, dans sa propre tendance à distancier de la société pour rechercher sa propre essence?

Au cours des dernières décennies, l'art et la science ont cependant suivi le chemin inverse ; ils font maintenant face à leur responsabilité et pertinence sociale. Frank Theys abordera les différents points de vue et les conséquences de ces nouvelles tendances entremêlées, avec une approche à la fois sociale, scientifique et artistique.

La présentation sera en Anglais.

À propos de Frank Theys

Frank Theys (° 1963, Bruxelles) est réalisateur, metteur en scène et artiste visuel. Il vit et travaille à Bruxelles et Amsterdam.

Son travail audiovisuel se décline autant sous forme de vidéo et d'installations interactives que de documentaires, films expérimentaux et performances théâtrales, et fait entre autres partie des collection du MOMA (New York), du SMAK (Gent), du Museum for the Moving Image (New York) et du Centre National de la Cinématographie in Paris.

The work of Frank Theys is characterized by a scientific approach to existential reflections. Technology itself has become subject and tool for drama. Artistic concepts, dramatic subjects and characters are often scientifically analyzed, human figures transformed by the technical manipulation of the image; scientific imagery is approached artistically.

His documentary trilogy Technocalyps (2006) in collaboration with Michel Bauwens - about new developments in technology and the prospect of transcending human limits - has generated a lot of response and discussion across the cultural and the scientific world. It has been the central piece of several exhibitions and congresses around the world.

Frank Theys is considered one of the founders of Belgian media art. In 1989 Theys cofounded the arts centre Argos. It became an international renowned place for video art and new media. He was also cofounder of Dziga, Belgian union for media artists, of which he has been alternatively the chairman and secretary until 2007.

After being house director for the Victoria Theatre (Ghent), he started his own media production company Votnik.. In 2013, together with fellow media artists Ria Pacquee, Koen Theys, Wim Catrysse, Harald Thys & Jos Degruyter and art curator Ulrike Lindmayr, he founded Escautville, a collective management platform focused on the specific needs of media art practices.

Frank Theys has taught at St-Lukas Film School (Brussels) and at DasArts, multidisciplinary Master's course in the Performing Arts at the Amsterdam School for the Arts (AHK). He has been a visiting teacher and lecturer at universities, film and art schools worldwide. He currently teaches art at the LUCA Art Academy in Ghent (Belgium) and art philosophy at the KABK ArtScience Interfaculty in Den Hague (The Netherlands). He is a researcher at the Catholic University Louvain (Belgium) and at the Free University Brussels (Belgium).

“Be it in the form of theatre, video installation, fiction or documentary, Frank Theys always undertakes a profound reflection on the imagery in its illustrative quality and suggestive power as well as for its aesthetic and social layering; and this in function of the used medium and its distribution channels. But far from comforting us in our habit to distinguish between those genres, THEYS places them in a dialogue that largely surpasses their intrinsic limits.” Alexander Streitberger in DITS