Koen Theys
(Brussels,
1963 )
A pioneer of video art in Belgium, Koen Theys also makes sculptures, photo collages and performances. In 1983 his video installation Crime 01 shocked to such an extent that he was expelled from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Theys’s work attests to a critical yet humorous vision of the power structures behind society, art and culture. In the 1990s, he made monumental photo collages in which the human desire for individuation clashes with the fact that man is fundamentally a social animal. In the late 1990s Theys rediscovered his love for video art. With a touch of irony he studied phenomena of Western spectacle culture and the internet. For a long time, Theys taught Autonomous Video Art at Sint Lucas Antwerp, a department he himself created in 2004. In 2013 he was honoured with Home-Made Victories, a retrospective exhibition at Ghent S.M.A.K.
