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The New York Times

August 19, 1986, Tuesday, Late City Final Edition

AVANT-GARDE ART SHOW ADORNS BELGIAN HOMES

BYLINE: Special to the New York Times
SECTION: Section C; Page 18, Column 3; Cultural Desk
LENGTH: 916 words
DATELINE: GHENT, Belgium
The home of Andre Vereecken, a psychoanalyst, is filled with texts by Sigmund Freud. What's unusual,
however, is that Freud's essays are written in large letters on Mr. Vereecken's walls, and thick lines of black
paint have been smeared over the words, making a thorough reading of the texts nearly impossible.
Throughout the comfortable Vereecken home - in his consulting room, along the corridors and on the
stairway walls - the same cacophony of partly blacked-out Freudian essays welcomes all visitors.
These bizarre decorations are the work of Joseph Kosuth, the New York-based conceptual artist , who with
50 other leading figures in contemporary art is taking part in a remarkable exhibition here called ''Chambres
d'Amis'' (''Guest Rooms'').
Although organized by this city's Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition does not take place in the
museum itself. Instead, the show is spread about in 59 private homes in this northern Belgian town, with
each artist being given one or two rooms in a house to create a work that reflects the immediate
environment. A fee of $6 provides entry to all of the houses.
According to Jan Hoet, director of the Ghent museum and organizer of the show, the aim is to force artists to
incorporate elements of the homes and homeowners into the works, thus linking reality with art.
''I am disturbed by the idea that art is here, and reality is there, separated,'' the 50-year-old Mr. Hoet said in
an interview. ''I don't accept that argument. If you see the show, you have the impression that you are in the
work, not just in front of it.'' #60,000 Expected to See Show Public response has been enthusiastic for
''Chambres d'Amis,'' which opened this summer. Mr. Hoet estimates that 60,000 people will have seen the
show by the time it closes on Sept. 21. As another indication of its success, he points out that he was offered
the use of twice as many homes as were needed for the $300,000 exhibition.
Aside from Mr. Kosuth, the artists include Sol LeWitt of the United States, Helmut Middendorf of West
Germany, Mario Merz of Italy, Panamarenko of Belgium and many others representing Minimal art,
conceptual art, arte povera and other forms of avant-garde work.
One of the unexpected attractions of the exhibition is its treasure-hunt quality. A viewer wanders around the
canal-lined city - on foot, by bicycle or auto - armed with a map of Ghent identifying the locations of the
houses in the show. It takes about two days to see all of the rooms dressed up by the artists, and in the
process a visitor gets much more of a feel for this lively city than would be possible in a traditional museumbased exhibition.
''Chambres d'Amis,'' said Mr. Hoet, is almost as much a celebration of Ghent as it is a celebration of
contemporary art linked with reality.
The interplay between artists and inhabitants is a hallmark of the show. Although the effort was not always
successful, the artists and homeowners were encouraged to discuss the proposed works of art so the
integration of reality and art would be as complete as possible. While Mr. Kosuth's effort is perhaps the most
obvious example of this synthesis, other projects succeeded in more subtle ways.
Mr. LeWitt, for example, painted a pyramid mural in the entranceway of the house he was chosen to work in.

The pyramid would probably attract little attention in a museum, but in the home it reaches up to a light and
thus imitates the shafts of illumination given off by the overhead bulb. Mr. LeWitt reportedly encouraged the
children living in the house to continue parking their bicycles against the decorated wall - an incongruous
sight that bemuses many visitors.
Doors That Lead Nowhere
Although most of the homes are owned by well-to-do people, there are some adventurous uses of lowincome households. The Belgian artist Jef Geys found six poor people who agreed to take part, and in their
houses he built doors that opened onto walls. On the doors he painted such political slogans as ''liberty,''
''equality'' and ''fraternity.'' The artist's message is unmistakable: for the political underclass, the often-heard
slogans are like those doors that lead nowhere.
This and other works on display in ''Chambres d'Amis'' have given the exhibit an iconoclastic aura that
reflects the outlook of Mr. Hoet, an outspoken, ardent supporter of avant-garde art. The son of a psychiatrist,
Mr. Hoet says the experience of growing up in almost daily contact with the mentally ill has prompted a
personal interest in ''people with passions, who are obsessed by an idea.'' He has described artists as
''sometimes resembling lunatics.''
''They focus their ideas on something precise, they have their obsessions.''
''Art seems to be running wild; it has lost its regular place, its center,'' Mr. Hoet writes in a lengthy introductory
essay in the show's catalogue. But the same does not apply to most museums, he says. They still think they
are ''capable of ensnaring art in their large, tight frames'' and as a result ''they run the risk of suffocating art.''
The problem, he says, is ''the deadly serious atmosphere and the aura of 'important culture' which pervade
most museums.''
In contrast, he describes ''Chambres d'Amis'' as a show in which ''art discreetly pervades regions where it
has been excluded for a long time.'' According to Mr. Hoet, the exhibition confronts ''the concrete, historical
dynamic of an inhabited house with the timeless neutrality of a museum.''
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: photo of consulting room of Andre Vereecken, a psychoanalyst (Jiri Jiru)
Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company