When you aren’t successful as a beginning artist, it’s easy to make the step from living and working as a practicing artist to a non-practicing artist. In that extent that it takes a while before one realizes that the step has been made. But what if you have achieved something in the art world, if you are a successful artist who decides not to produce any longer? Should this be seen as the end of a career or as a statement of the artist? Isn’t it possible to perceive the profession switch as a private decision instead of a well-considered statement? Does the impossibility of leaving the art world without having the art world querying the motives imply a radical fusion of art and life? When we are talking about successful artists that decided not to stop producing art works, we’re saying they left the art scene.

In the project ‘Archiving disappearance’this phenomena will be investigated. The entire project encloses an archive, two symposia and a publication. The archive is only accessible through the public lectures in which different case studies will be presented and discussed. In relation to the exposition ‘More Stories on Absence’ Extra City organizes a lecture by Krist Gruijthuijsen in which he will present the evolutions in the archive of this long-term project.

Language English