Theys, Frank

1963 Ukkel (Belgium). Lives and works in Amsterdam.

During his studies in philosophy Frank Theys wrote a dissertation on the German 19th century composer Richard Wagner. After his studies, he and his brother Koen checked the intrigues with the scenarios of the epic cycle Ring des Nibelungen and the opera Parsifal, both by Wagner, resulting in the epoch making two volume video Lied van mijn Land (Song of my Soil, 1982 - 1988). They’ve treated these operas with an immoral curiosity and have enriched it with personal and contemporary themes. Combining Wagner’s Leitmotiv technique with the vast possibilities of video techniques, they have developed a video language which consists in adding emotional, intuitive or intellectual connotations to elementary images, which are continuously combined in different ways, so that the narrative structure arises. The apparent megalomania is compensated by the ironical tone, but the exuberant parade of electronic settings, inflatable females, sham rustic, scale models, aestheticizes images into an abyssal game with perspective and space. Frank Theys is fascinated by the psychology needed to preserve the own subjectivity in a postmodern world that is levelled out by money and mass media. He confronts this investigation with many personal reflections: about the relationship between art and technology, about television in which all cultural diversity is ignored, about the degeneration of man and nature and the possible technological solutions and alternatives. His findings result in installations and as of 1992 in the writing and directing of plays, as director in residence for the Victoria Theatre (Ghent). In order to shape these visions Frank Theys creates separate psychological worlds (spaces) inhibited by figures who are carrying a number of connotations that refer to the various psychological characters and situations. He does so by electronic media, animated objects and characters who are communicating with each other in technical jargon. According to Theys television functions as a person who has lost its I. It keeps repeating everything and is nothing itself. In modern society the danger of finding itself in such a situation is very real as the omission of the set values (the centre) is continually urging the individual to give meaning to life itself. Since a few years Frank Theys’ interest lies explicitly in the relationships between man and new technologies. Like in the video-installation De Kus (’The Kiss’, 1997), which shows a couple in intimate embrace, realised with an MR-scan. Theys puts forward that the advanced technology of this post-modern society visualises anything that is muffled away beneath skin or hair, and nature as well as romantic feelings are desecrated and perverted. Furthermore, he foresees that in the third milenium the position of art and its author will be questioned again. Maybe even in so far that the receiver will give a devestating reply to the image that is spread via Internet by completely overwriting it with another action.

Solo exhibitions:
1986: + Koen Theys, ’Het Rijngoud’, Mediamatic, Groningen (The Netherlands) 1987: + Koen Theys, ’Het Rijngoud’, Gele Zaal, Gent (B) - + Koen Theys, ’Het Rijngoud’, Shaffy Theater, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) 1988: + Koen Theys, GA Galerie, Waasmunster (B) 1989: + Frank Theys, American Museum of the Moving Image, New York (USA) - Beursschouwburg, Brussel (B) - + Koen Theys, ’De Walküre’, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (USA) 1990: Kijkhuis, Den Haag (The Netherlands) 1991: Beursschouwburg, Brussel (B) 1995: Concert Noble, Brussel (B) 1996: C.C. De Westrand, Dilbeek (Belgium) 1997: Galerie Transit, Leuven (B) 1999: ’Demarches’, Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens, Leuven (B) - Het Paleis, Antwerp (B) 2000: Galerie Transit, Mechelen (B) 2004: guest curator for Beeldenstoorm II, Courtray (B)

Group exhibitions:
1986: Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (B) In de Maalstroom/ Au coeur du Maelstrom - Cercle Paul Bert, Rennes (F) - Goethe Instituut, Lille (F) - Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (USA) -’This is Belgium’, The Kitchen, New York (USA) - Art en Belgique au XXième siècle, Musée d’Arts Modernes de la Ville de Paris (F) 1987: Stichting De Burcht, Leiden (UK) - Kanaal, Tussen-in, Courtray (B) - ’Op. Cit.-Festival’, Beursschouwburg, Brussels (B) - ’Off-off Festival’, Museum for Contemporary Art, Ghent (B) - ’Contained Attitudes’, Artists Space, New York (USA) - Points ’87, Centre de la Wallonie, Paris (F) - I.C.C., Antwerp (B) - Jeune Peinture Belge, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (B) 1988: Galerij ’De Lege Ruimte’, Bruges (B) 1989: Bruzzle, Beursschouwburg, Brussels (B) - Vidéo/Art Plastique,Hérouville (F) 1990: Tagankatheatre, Moskow (USSR) - Akademie der Künste, Berlin (D) - Belgijska Eksplozija, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana (Yugoslavia) - Bruzzle ’90, Brussels (B) 1991: Kunsthalle, Luzern (Switzerland) 1992: St.-Gervais, Geneva (Switzerland) Petofi Hall, Boedapest (Hungary) - STUC, Leuven (B) 1993: Histoires Belges, Graz (Ostria) 1994: MUHKA, Antwerp (B) 1995: Klaarte, De gemartelde tijd, Leuven (B) 1996: ICC, Beeldberichten, Antwerp (B) 1998: Galerie Transit, Mechelen (B) 1999: Démarches, Leuven (B) 2001: MODE 2001, Landed/Geland, MUHKA, Antwerp (B) - Espace Nord, Tour & Taxis, Brussels (B) - Turning Points, Leuven (B) speaker at the congres Musterion (B) - speaker at Nuit de l’Art Vidéo, Mons (B) 2002: Bruges 2002 - Artists in Residence, Bruges (B) - Octopus, Bruges (B) - Title Safe, Nadine/ Corban, Brussels (B) - Beeldenstorm, Cortray (B) 2003: Stit.ic, TENT, Rotterdam (UK) - Kunstfilm Biënnale, Keulen (D) - Akademie der Künste, Berlijn (D) - Festival for the New Film, Split (Croatia) - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (USA) - Once upon a Time… Een blik op kunst in Belgium in de jaren ’90, MuHKA, Antwerp (B) 2004: SMAK aan zee, Bredene (B) - Herfstcollectie, MuHKA, Antwerp (B) - Collectie SMAK, Ghent (B) - Transfer, Tbilisi (Georgia) - Artcinema Off-off, Ghent (B) - Zona de Mestizaje, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (E) 2005: WRO International Media Art Biennale, Wroclav (Poland) - Haus der Kunst, München (D)

Awards:
1986: + Koen Theys, ’Prix Ar-Canal’ for ’Lied van mijn land’, 3ème Festival de la Vidéo et de la Télévision, Montbéliard (France) 1991: Bleustein-Blanchet Prize for Plastic Arts (Belgium)