1999, Leuven
Based in Brussels
Medusa Offspace
Polyflows
The Bureau
email,
statement
Saskia Smith has eyes that stand quite far apart, which might explain her open-mindedness about what constitutes an artistic exchange. With a graphic design degree in place (LUCA Ghent), she often finds herself frustrated by mechanisms that seal the art world into a hermetically airtight niche, claiming “l’art pour l’art” as a mantra in the process of gaining self-referential credibility. Quite ironically, it happens to be so that she also co-directs Medusa Offspace, a Brussels-based curatorial project which thrives on the very formalities such claim implies. (They say that one is drawn to what it resists, and where there is conflict, interest grows.) Working both in- and behind-the-scenes of the art world has fuelled her desire to leverage what she gained from her additional studies in anthropology (KU Leuven). She now feels devoted to anthropological frames of thought and wonders how they can be phrased in such a way that (courting neither hope nor despair) systems of “culture” (such as art) come to realise (if overlooked) their embeddedness in Western cultural biases. Some have caught onto this, as evidenced by her invitations to write for and/or speak at Cloud Seven, Damien & The Love Guru, De Warande Turnhout, Kunsthal Ghent, and Arti et Amici Amsterdam.selected writing
Are We Nearly There Yet?Showered in Blessings
Jacuzzi of Despair