Jef Declercq

Jef Declercq is an exhibition maker and art historian based in Brussels. He obtained a master's degree in Art Science from Ghent University (2019). In 2020, he completed the postgraduate course in Curatorial Studies at KASK School of Arts. During his studies, Jef Declercq gained experience at Art Cinema OFFoff (Ghent) and La Loge (Brussels), among others. He co-founded and curated STOFWOLK, an arts collective that organised exhibitions and performance events between 2016 and 2018 in Ghent. From 2017 to 2021, he was a member of the Young Friends v/h S.M.A.K., a dynamic group of young curators linked to the Friends v/h S.M.A.K. He also initiated several projects with individual artists. Since 2021, Jef Declercq has been working as an independent curator.

Jef Declercq's curatorial projects start from the specificity of the artistic practice or the exhibition location. In this, he maintains a preference for unconventional exhibition spaces. Notions of site-specificity and the cross-fertilisation between art and architecture are some of his concerns. Public space has been the context of his projects on several occasions. Recent projects include an in-situ intervention by Bert Villa (°1991, BE) in the English landscape park Bulskampveld (Beernem) and a solo exhibition by Yoel Pytowski (°1986, IL) at Experimental Intermedia Ghent. In the summer of 2021, he co-curated with the Young Friends (Adriënne van der Werf, Koi Persyn and Anna Laganovska) Publiek Park, a four-day open-air exhibition with works by 22 (inter)national artists and an extensive public programme in Ghent's Citadel Park.

Image credit: Lars Duchateau