Smoke & Mirrors

*Because of the lockdown, the duration of this exhibition has been shortened*

Smoke & Mirrors is a classic technique of illusionists. A projector, the beam of which is reflected in a cloud of smoke through a hidden mirror, creates an image of a floating, ghostly apparition. It is about creating an alternative reality, about wonder and imagination.

The exhibition shows new acquisitions and existing works in the visual arts collection that similarly evoke dream images, reflections on current issues and phantoms from the past. Sometimes monumental, often subtle. Planting a seed in your head and in your heart.

Let yourself be carried away by the suggestion of a deeper truth and broaden your horizons by Smoke & Mirrors, with work by David Bade, Yael Bartana, Koen Doodeman, Charlotte Dumas, Hadassah Emmerich, Gijs Frieling, Vera Gulikers, Fons Haagmans, Natasja Kensmil, Troy Lovegates, Elke Lutgerink, Keetje Mans, Rik Meijers, Navid Nuur, Simone Schuffelen, Johan Tahon, Aline Thomassen, Esther Tielemans, Helen Verhoeven and Dan Zhu, among others.

Looking for Vivi

The exhibition also makes a connection to the photographic works of Lara Gasparotto. Gasparotto’s photographs are somewhere between quickly taken snapshots and theatrically constructed snapshots and theatrically constructed film stills: penetrating portraits of people and poetic images of places and landscapes, imbued with stories. In 2019, Gasparotto travelled with museologist Paola Basika to the Democratic Republic of Congo in search of the mythical city of Vivi, the first capital founded by Belgian settlers in 1885.

Gasparotto recorded this quest in the series Looking for Vivi: Ville Fantôme du Kongo. Their joint project in text and image is a fusion of historical research and artistic creation. Looking for Vivi tells the story of another Congo, beyond the clichés of Western media.

Together with Lara Gasparotto, SCHUNCK investigates the possibility to expand the project in the future, where artists and curators reflect on the colonial past of the Netherlands.

About Lara Gasparotto

Lara Gasparotto (1989, Luik, B) studied photography at Saint-Luc, Ecole Supérieure des Arts in Liège. Shortly after graduating, she was named ‘Emerging Talent’ by View Photography Magazine in 2008, and since 2009 has regularly exhibited her work at exhibitions and photography biennales and festivals. In 2015, she will win the ING Unseen Talent Award and, in 2020, the Prize of the Creation of the city of Liège. In November 2021, her work will be shown at the international photography fair Paris Photo, among other events. Gasparotto lives and works in Wallonia, near Liège, and is represented by Stieglitz 19 gallery in Antwerp.