Boekpresentatie in het kader van Het huis. De mentor. Het archief.

The exhibition ‘The House. The Mentor. The Archive. Christian Kieckens’ will be brought to a festive close on Sunday 5 June with the presentation of the book ‘Autonomous architecture in Flanders. The early work of Marie-José Van Hee, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem, Christian Kieckens and Marc Dubois’. A book and a party as an ode to Christian Kieckens and his contemporaries.

Christian Kieckens’ work, thinking, and intellectual and artistic sources are rooted in a profound disappointment in Flanders’ architectural culture and education in the 1970s. Kieckens went abroad in search of more edifying material and studied historical and contemporary masters.

It was on the basis of this range of ideas that, together with a number of ‘fellow travellers’ – Marc Dubois, Marie-José Van Hee, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem – he laid the foundations for the present architectural culture of Flanders. To bring Kieckens’ exhibition and the accompanying series of talks to a close, on Sunday 5 June we are presenting a book in which this generation of architects plays a leading part.

‘Autonomous architecture in Flanders. The early work of Marie-José Van Hee, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem, Christian Kieckens and Marc Dubois’ includes articles by Belgian and foreign authors, who put the work of Marc Dubois, Christian Kieckens, Marie-José Van Hee, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem in context. There is a focus on their quest for the foundations of an autonomous logic of architecture, on their interest in history and interiors and on the relationship between their work and art. The book also contains impressions and tributes from architect and artist friends.

Please confirm your attendance at www.vai.be/inschrijven