RUPTZ (1975-1977)Des Fous qui seront des classiques

Ruptz was founded in Namur at the end of the 1970s by Marc Borgers and Jean-Louis Sbille, later joined by Anne Frère. The Ruptz group's existence was as intense as it was ephemeral. In a little more than two years, this group produced a series of artistic interventions involving practices that were just emerging at the time: video art, performance art, body art, photography, artist publishing, sociological art, and even the visual aesthetics of communication. For example, this could entail timekeeping for a day, subjecting the body to sound amplification, carrying out sociological identity surveys, editing publications, and so forth. Later on, the group moved to Brussels and published the ten issues of the now mythical magazine Soldes. Fins de Séries is considered to be the Belgian equivalent of the French collective Bazooka.

Ruptz's interventions were extremely radical in Belgium. Often on a par with Dan Graham or Vito Acconci, they were seen as vital necessities by those who created them, regardless of the echo they might meet or the posterity they might legitimately engender. Based on the belief that "the past no longer has to be shared," these artists did not attach any importance to preserving tangible traces of their acts or documents. It was only a few years ago that BPS22 was able to find traces of these works. Preparatory sketches, photographs, and suchlike were collected in aluminium frames, reminiscent of the conceptual art from that period. The exhibition will display these works for the first time and provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the importance of this singular collective in the Belgian panorama.

Curator: Pierre-Olivier Rollin

EXHIBITION: 20.02 > 23.05.2021
OPENING WEEKEND: 20.02 - 21.02.2021. FREE ENTRANCE! On reservation.