William Kentridge: Smoke, Ashes, Fable

This major exhibition presents a unique selection of William Kentridge’s work curated for Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges―at 800 years one of Europe’s oldest surviving hospital buildings. Organized around the themes of trauma and healing, the show takes as its centerpiece Kentridge’s 2015 video installation More Sweetly Play the Dance, a contemporary interpretation of the medieval Dance of Death. Through a dialogue between the displayed artworks – including ones by Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers, with whom Kentridge shares interests – and the remarkable hospital setting, the exhibition presents art as a powerful means of ‘working through’ layers of history. The catalogue includes four original essays. Margaret K Koerner, curator of the exhibition, introduces Kentridge and Bruges. Benjamin Buchloh considers Kentridge’s alternate reception of the historical avant-garde from a perspective of exile, distant from American and European post-war neo-avantgarde practices. Taking a cue from the exhibition’s ancient hospital setting and the historicallylayered city of Bruges, Joseph Leo Koerner explores Kentridge’s art as a self-styled process of working through, in which the past simultaneously disfigures and redeems. Harmon Siegel examines Kentridge’s approach to film history, touching also on the work of Broodthaers. William Kentridge: Smoke Ashes Fable represents a major new treatment of one of the greatest artists of our time.