About

019 was never going to remain the only place we worked in. From the start, it’s been a laboratory that swings us into unknown directions, constantly sharpening our sense of improvisation and reinvention on the spot. For three years, from 2013 onwards, we made that old welding factory at Dok Noord in Ghent (Belgium) the focal point of our activities. People even started to identify the entirety of our collective, Smoke & Dust, with what was basically only the name of its nineteenth project. We became 019. The whole project turned us upside down. But in doing so, we became aware as well. We understood that the act of occupying and taking possession of the site was not the goal of our work at all. From the inside out, starting with a wooden construction in its interior and up to the billboard at an outside wall and a series of flagpoles on the roof, we gradually developed the place into an assembly of undergrounds for public and artistic encounter, an emerging space for collaboration that was grounded on the premise that all media at our disposal were common grounds to be rediscovered. That is when the work began. That is when things began to move, for real. That is when we realized—artists, architects, designers and the like—we had all turned into scenographers, regardless of our discipline: co-authors of a scene that was constructed out of margins and constraints, participants in a game of give and take that we endlessly play around a display we like to recycle. In the end, that’s how 019, our handling of its space through appropriation and dispossession, became the site of a moving practice, a collaborative way of working ready to be moved, reproduced and reinvented elsewhere. (Tom Van Imschoot, 2016)

Ghent-based artist collective Smoke & Dust embarked on their 19th project in 2013, occupying an abandoned welding factory at Dok-Noord. Funnily enough, this project simply titled 019 became so big in size and scope that it eventually engulfed the collective’s name itself. Though Smoke & Dust does still exist as a core organisation, this exhibition-cum-workspace came to be known by its adopted name, and so this initially temporary project continues to carry the torch for Ghent and Belgium’s contemporary art scene. Yet perhaps what is most exciting is their unlimited approach, allowing not only artists and photographers but also architects, graphic designers and publishers to become scenographers at 019. (The Word Magazine, 2019)

019 currently is:
Tim Bryon
Bieke Criel
Bert Villa
Arnout De Cleene
Michiel De Cleene
Olivier Goethals
Valentijn Goethals
Tomas Lootens
Eva Dobbels
Stella Schoning
Jakob Dewald
Mark Foss
Haron Barashed
Meret Behnke
Isa Vink
Adèle Sweetlove

019 would not be the same without the past and present contributions of:
Justine Aléda, Joppe Behaeghe, Timo Bonneure, Mijs Both, Julian Braakman, Markéta De Borggraef, Jarne Bossaerts, Victor Calame, Thomas Caron, Jens Clerckx, Heleen Corthouts, Pauwel De Buck, Ran De Vos, Louis Desmet, Hector Devriendt, Lore Donckers, Thaïs Dupont, Eugènia Lopez Duran, Warre Eeckhout, Lizzy Ellbrück, Lara Finkenstaedt, Valentin Garcia, Naomi Greenstein, Louis Hilson, Leo Horton, Fred Horton, Lyra Oey, Ossian Osborne, Bruno Jacoby, Lore Janssens, Lizzy Jongedijk, Josse Keppens, Tjobo Kho, Lisa Kinoo, Mathew Kneebone, Steven De Kort, Noah Leijssen, Margot Magnière, Ine Meganck, Bénédicte Mertens, Lola Mondy, Isabel Motz, Jeroen Mylle, Lukas Neven, Fabrice Parent, Maren Rommerskirchen, Joanna Rosso, Mathieu Serruys, Juliane Schmitt, Woud Schoutteten, Vennica Sidibanga Kaseye, Victor Sirot, Claire Stragier, Kobe Vandenberghe, Phara Vandenbussche, Margo Vanneste, Neeltje van der Vlugt, Lulu van Dijck, Victor Van Wassenhove, Kaat Vercammen, Antonia Vincenza, Dries Voet, Jens Wijnendaele, Angela Xu

Alles Kan, All Things Contemporary, Archipel, Art Cinema OFFoff, Artlead, B.A.A.D.M., Be-part, Boomtown, Brede School, CirQ, Cultuur Gent, Das Kunst, Design museum Gent, DOK, Het Nieuwe Instituut, KASK School of Arts, Kraak, Kunsthal Gent, LUCA School of Arts, Provincie Oost & West-Vlaanderen, RIOT, Sint-Lucas Faculteit Architectuur KU Leuven, Stad Gent, Subbacultcha, Vooruit…

019 volunteers and internships make us happy ⟶ info@019-ghent.org

Smoke & Dust vzw is the not-for-profit organisation behind 019. Board members: Nana Esi, Katinka de Jonge, Wim Lambrecht, Hannelore Van Dijck, Tom Van Imschoot, Inge Vinck, Tom Willox

Website:
Mathieu Serruys

 

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019 is made possible with the support of the the City of Ghent (Cultuur Gent, Fonds Tijdelijke Invullingen) & the Flemish Government.