The benefit of the doubt ”Most of my musical heroes did not live to an old age. Maybe this is what makes their music so direct: a pile of expectations, a hunger for more!”
Coming People is a selection. The choice of two curators who work in the S.M.A.K. in Ghent and made in 2008. They make a selection from the masters, graduates of Kask (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) or St-Lucas School for Higher education. In principle everyone has a right to this selection. However here it is not about a principle, a strategic or political choice. It is about a fairly subjective and largely relative choice. It is more a confirmation of dormant ambition, projected talent, a first sketch of expectations. It is not a final evaluation and definitely not an unconditional recognition of an absolute opinion. The opinion is always related to the artist, to the age and the context. Through Coming People each of the selected artists receives a credit line filled with advantages. The greatest advantage on this credit card is the benefit of the doubt. Ultimately our aim is to credit potential. Will everything selected confirm the quality of this first encounter in the future? Who can say, but we are not afraid to admit doubt. But here and now we recognise possibilities and we see something happening that reveals an ambition. Which is enough for us to give the artists the benefit of our doubt. Coming People brings together a collection of work by Bert De Geyter, Marianne Goossens, Yves Obyn, Mark Plas, Jan Rymenants, Maarten Dings, Mattias Christiaens and Samuel Vanderveken.
