Lezing #1 M.V.
16 July 19.00

The first in a series of lectures by Koen Brams on remarkable yet overlooked figures of the Belgium art scene who have appeared and disappeared at historically significant moments in time.

In 1973 Marian Verstraeten (31 May 1951-11 February 1997) started working for radio 3 in Belgium. During that time, Verstraeten conducted interviews with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Ryman and David Hockney while simultaneously working as a translator/editor for Bozar, center for fine arts in Brussels. Afterwards, Verstraeten became editor of the art magazines +-0 and Artefactum and started working as the assistant of visual artist, art critic and theoretician Fernand Spillemaeckers who initiated the progressive Galerie MTL in Brussels.
Founded 1970, Galerie MTL provided a platform for more than a hundred exhibitions, of which mostly were dedicated to conceptual art. Many important artists at the time exhibited at the gallery among whom Sol LeWitt, Gilberto Zorio, Daniel Buren, André Cadere, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Dibbets, Mel Bochner, Joseph Kosuth, Guy Mees, Hanne Darboven, John Baldessari and Robert Ryman

Marian Verstraeten’s files provide a rich and unvarnished impression of what happened during that period.