Front Row with Deborah Bowmann

M HKA and NICC warmly invite you to join us for an artist talk by Deborah Bowmann on Thursday 29 January at 19:00 at M HKA.

In their talk, the artists will present an overview of the last ten years of their art practice, from Amsterdam to Brussels, from their bedrooms to their gallery space.

Deborah Bowmann is a collaborative artist persona formed by artists Amaury Daurel (b. 1990, Bordeaux) and Victor Delestre (b. 1989, Bordeaux). Working at the fringe of sculpture and set design, their practice spans curating exhibitions and producing sculptures, installations, and scenographic environments. Deborah Bowmann develops alternative approaches to exhibition-making at the intersection of contemporary art and design, articulating a close relationship between studio practice and curatorial practice. For eight years, from 2015 until 2022, they ran an eponymous exhibition space in Brussels, where they directed and programmed more than 32 exhibitions, balancing solo presentations of their own work with collaborative projects involving numerous artists. These exhibitions merged artistic production, exhibition-making, and scenography in the spirit of a Gesamtkunstwerk, drawing on détournements of domestic environments, bureaucratic settings, and commercial language, and operating within a service-oriented logic that moves between sculpture, design, and scenography. Within this context, authorship was frequently blurred, privileging the exhibition as a collective and spatial proposition.

Deborah Bowmann has realized numerous exhibitions and commissions in institutional contexts, including Atlas Export, Brasserie Atlas, Brussels (2023); The Spectacle of Our Lives, a group exhibition conceived as a live performance, curated and directed by Deborah Bowmann, De Studio, Antwerp (16–19 May 2021); Grand Salon, Centre d’art Passages, Troyes (2020); Concepts, options et autres pantalons, Centre d’art Les Capucins, Embrun (2018); and Les Bons Sentiments, 19th Prix Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris (2017). Selected scenography commissions include Alias, M Leuven (2024); The Seduction of the Bureaucrats, De Garage, Mechelen (2023); Extra! Literature Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2021–2023); Le Club du Poisson-Lune, CAPC, Bordeaux (2022); and Leonard Koren & Guests, La Loge, Brussels (2018).

Their first monograph, Deborah Bowmann: Ten Years On, was published by Triangle Books in 2024 and brings together images, archival materials, original drawings, an interview with Christine Tuur, and an essay by Jean-Baptiste Carobolante.

FRONT ROW is a monthly series of artist’s talks jointly organised by M HKA and NICC. Serving as an open format to artists – whether a talk, a presentation of an idea, a lecture performance – the programme offers the opportunity to reflect on art, culture and society by some of the most thought-provoking artists practising today.

FRONT ROW is co-organised by M HKA and the artist-run platform NICC through a shared basis in supporting artists, nurturing international perspectives, and being generators of discussion. M HKA and NICC warmly welcome you to this monthly series of discussions.

Practical information

Thursday 29.01, 19:00
Artist talk, followed by a Q&A
M HKA auditorium
Free access, reserve your spot
In English