CAMPO IS A STATEMENT

Arts centre, workspace, and production house CAMPO is transforming. A new artistic director, new curatorial lines, new trajectory artists, and new initiatives for artistic research; the development of an accessibility policy, a new visual identity, a new magazine, and a refreshed bar at CAMPO nieuwpoort by September. Meanwhile, we are building a traveling Circus of Care together with partners (a residential care centre, a hospital, and schools) around CAMPO victoria.

In recent months, we have held our entire artistic operation up to the light. CAMPO is a house that has gained significant international visibility and recognition over the years. Precisely at this peak, we choose not to complacently continue with business as usual, but to thoroughly clean and dust the house. New desires are bringing a breath of fresh air.

At its core, CAMPO’s DNA remains unchanged: it is thé primary presentation venue in Ghent for emerging talent, thé workspace in Ghent for artistic development, and thé production house for innovative and daring performance work. Under the motto ‘those who do not keep innovating become irrelevant,’ we are sharpening that core once again.

Our new magazine has been titled STATEMENTS, a name we are also giving to the new annual opening festival. With CAMPO, we ask what it still means to make an artistic statement today. In an era of ‘alternative truths,’ everything has become a potential fiction. One could say that the ambiguous and subversive character of post-war avant-garde art movements has devolved into an all-pervading political methodology. What role can art still play in such a society? If everything is a potentially true or false story, and you can use AI to generate any lifelike but fictional video, which artistic strategies still hold meaning?

For our first CAMPO zine, we asked four generations, from child to senior, to contribute a statement about the possible developments of art itself. These contributions form the common thread throughout this issue. In addition, on this website and the magazine, you will be introduced to the renewed presentation program, the makers behind no fewer than seven new artistic creations, and the artists within our new research trajectories.

Curating an artistic program in a time of global unrest requires constant reflection. More than ever, artists and organizations navigate a complex field of forces in which they must safeguard their social relevance within a challenging political, social, and financial climate. Through the clear choice to fully support not-yet established artists, we work on hope every day. CAMPO is a statement.

Michiel Vandevelde, Artistic Director