Hugo Roelandt Archive

The Belgian artist, Hugo Roelandt (1950-2015) is one of Belgium’s preeminent pioneers of performance art in the 1970s and 80s.

By combining his insights into photography and performance, Roelandt evolves towards a personal design practice of performance, documentation and installation art which he called ‘post performance’. Roelandt explores the boundaries of various (current) social issues in his photographs, installations and performances. As early as the mid-1970s, for example, he depicted the ‘fluidity’ of identity and gender in a way that is still very much relevant today. At the same time, he acutely reflects on the art forms themselves. Among others, his post-performances are a consistent enactment of his unique and ground-breaking thinking about the essence of performance. The charismatic and energetic Roelandt has worked with many artists throughout his career, and he deliberately operates outside the art market.

Hugo Roelandt donated part of his legacy to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, where he taught as part of the photography faculty. In consultation with his partner Lydia Van Loock, the Academy has decided to have the artist’s archive conserved in its entirety at the M HKA as a research platform on the artist and performance art in Belgium. The archive was gradually rounded out, over the course of 2019, with additional donations by Lydia Van Loock.

(JS)