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Press preview: Thursday 16.Oct.2025, 11:00-13:00

S.M.A.K. highlights an important oeuvre that has long remained in the shadows

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Marc De Blieck "Affirmation #32", 2025 Courtesy the artist and Annie Gentils Gallery © mdb

You are cordially invited to the press preview of the exhibition Point de voir by Marc De Blieck at S.M.A.K. on Thursday, 16 October.

From 18 October 2025 to 8 March 2026, S.M.A.K. presents the first museum solo exhibition by Belgian artist Marc De Blieck. Entitled Point de voir, the exhibition brings together various series of photographs from the past 25 years.

Marc De Blieck (b. 1958, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium) questions the expectation that a photographer must communicate a particular insight or viewpoint. He challenges the viewer by disrupting the link between point of view as physical position and point of view as opinion. The exhibition’s title refers to the concept of point de voir (point of seeing), a term coined by the French pedagogue, philosopher, writer, filmmaker, and artist Fernand Deligny. Unlike a point de vue (viewpoint), a “point of seeing” is imaginary. It cannot, therefore, be taken or occupied.

Although his images don’t make statements about the world they depict, they are neither vague nor merely suggestive. Instead, De Blieck concentrates on what makes photography unique: its extraordinary sharpness and capacity for detail.

His images invite us to look closely. Though there is much to see, they withhold immediate clarity: something stubbornly resists. De Blieck breaks through our habitual ways of seeing, among other things through the camera’s wide field of vision, exceeding that of the human eye, and through his play with colour, format, and printing techniques.

With this exhibition, S.M.A.K. wishes to highlight an important oeuvre that has long remained in the shadows.

  • Press preview in the presence of the artist on Thursday, 16 October 2025, with an open visit between 11:00 and 13:00.
    Please confirm your attendance via fran.bombeke@smak.be.

8 - 19.Oct.2025

Film Fest Gent and S.M.A.K. present the work of James Benning

The United States of America 2022 still
Still from 'The United States of America', 2022 © James Benning

During the 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent, the festival and S.M.A.K. are joining forces once again. Together, they spotlight the versatile work of influential American artist and filmmaker James Benning (°1942, Milwaukee, WI). Alongside the inclusion of little boy in Film Fest Gent’s Official Selection, three of his key works will also be screened at S.M.A.K.

+ more

Later this year

Avelino Sala
Avelino Sala © ‘4,33 minutes of silence of minutes of silence’, 2021
29.Nov.25 - 8.Mar.26

EUROPALIA ESPAÑA | Resistance. The Power of the Image

  • Save the date: Press conference on Thursday 27 November 2025 at 11:00

Press release

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Narcisse Tordoir, Fake Echo (2016) (detail) © Koen de Waal
29.Nov.25 - 3.May.26

Narcisse Tordoir | Fake Barok

Press release

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Aziz Hazara, 'Bow Echo', 2019 © Collection S.M.A.K.
29.Nov.25 - 3.May.26

Aziz Hazara | Bow Echo

Press release

5 SMAK Beweegt Foto Martin Corlazzoli
S.M.A.K. Moves © Martin Corlazzoli
29.Nov.25 - 3.May.26

10 Years of S.M.A.K. Moves

Press release (NL)

Contact
Press & Communication

Fran Bombeke
fran.bombeke@smak.be
+32 (0)494 90 71 66

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Jan Hoetplein 1 9000 Gent
+32 (0)9 323 60 01
info@smak.be

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