JEF CORNELIS TV WORKS 1960–80

ARGOS is glad to collaborate with Goldsmiths CCA in the framework of an exhaustive exhibition in honour of talented Jef Cornelis.

Over the course of a decade-long career, Belgian Director Jef Cornelis (1941-2018) has built a unique archive of exhibition histories through the format of the television documentary. 

Now-celebrated figures, such as Harald Szeemann, Daniel Buren, Sol Le Witt, James Lee Byars and Marcel Broodthaers feature in programmes that experimentally probe at the structural conditions of making art public. From small project space exhibitions, to Documenta 4 & 5, his camera, and lines of questioning, manage to capture the contingent lateral elements of cultural production, often concealed from the public’s view. Rifts, disputes, anxieties and rivalries are all laid bare through Cornelis’ elegant and revealing exposition of the centrality of conflict in staging exhibitions and making art.

These films are all the more compelling today given that they were commissioned and broadcast on public television in Belgium; highlighting the decline in both the quantity and quality of cultural programming on our screens today.

 (Natasha Hoare, Curator at Goldsmiths CCA)