LAB[AU] | DE GARAGE: GROUP EXHIBITION

LAb[au] presented the installation What hath God wrought ? In the group exhibition Seduction of the Bureaucrat, curated by Pieter Vermeulen at De Garage, Mechelen. 

An exhibition and series of public conversations about the (unlikely) relationship between art and bureaucracy.

The artist and the civil servant are far apart, each in their own biotope: the studio and the office. Creativity generally does not conform to forms, procedures and protocols. Yet artists inevitably come into contact with bureaucracy. How do they look at it, and how do they deal with it in their work? Do kafkaesque situations still play out in shadowy backrooms and dusty archives, or does today's office space look different? What role does digital infrastructure play? What do Bartleby's famous words mean “I would prefer not to” within a contemporary work ethic of quiet quitting, bore- and burn-out? Does creativity still make sense in a country where even bookkeeping is creative? Is it up to the artist to seduce the bureaucrat, or is it difficult for the bureaucrat to resist the bureaucratic temptation?

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