The Institute

The Higher Institute for Fine Arts offers young talented artists from Belgium and abroad a studio for two years together with professional guidance by experts from the international art world. These work periods often launch international art careers. This book conveys an image of all HISK artists of the past two decades and in so doing sketches a history of contemporary art in Belgium and beyond. Essays by the HISK's co-founder and chairman Willem Elias and renowned experts such as John C. Welchman, Katerina Gregos and Gertrud Sandqvis reflect on the artist in his studio and his societal role in the world. With Tate Modern-director Chris Dercon, the HISK's artistic director Oscar van den Boogaard discusses the future of art in its academic context. They pose the 'What role can a Higher Institute for Fine Arts play?' How does such an institution remain relevant? Featuring old, but especially new work - on exclusive artists' pages - by 230 artists.

1. Reshaping the space. Chris Decron in conversation with Oscar van den Boogaard. 2. On Academia. A Theoretical Framework. Willem Elias. 3. On Peers. Artists' Stories. Nedko Solakov. 4. Reflections on the Place of the Studio Today. Katerina Gregos. 5. On Context and Critique, Art and Institutions. Filling in (and Firing) Smoe Blanks. John C. Welchman. 6. On Theory. Gertrud Sandqvist. 7 . The Institute. Or the Interdisciplinary Virtual Art of Mediacrity. A short play by Tom De Mette. 8. On Oeuvre. The Ideology of the Immaterial Body of Artworks. Pascal Gielen. 9. Artists' pages. 10. Timeline. 11. HISK as Institute. Willem Elias.