The Accident

The first edition of The Accident was published in June 2007 and is built up around the idea of 'accidents'; apparent ‘coincidences’ in time.
With articles on the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, CosmoGolem, Born and Golden Spur and contributions by amonst others; Filip Luuyckx, Peter Dupont, Michael McMillan and Dr. Luc Vrielinck. Exhibition images from ao. Lisson Gallery, London (UK), Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf (DE), Centraal Museum, Utrecht (NL) and Mumbai (IN).

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In December 2009, the second edition of The Accident researched the concept of islands, as places where interesting biotopes emerge. Islands are also places that can get isolated and lead to inbreed.

It opened with Vanmechelen's participation to the 3rd Moscow Biennale 'Against Exclusions' as entrance marker and included images of the Biennial of Venice, St Lucas Gallery, Brussels (BE) and Verbeke foudation, Kemzeke (BE). Besides texts from Peter Dupont and Luc Vrielinck, Tate Consultant dr Mike Phillips wrote about art and science and James Moore (Darwin biograher) and Brian Josephson, Nobel Prize laureate and ‘resident heretic’ at Cambridge were interviewed.

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in 2011 we published the third edition of The Accident; nurtured by Vanmechelen's selection for the 54th Venice International Art Exhibition, the Fourth Guangzhou Triennial and the official start of the Open University of Diversity in Belgium. This edition is dedicated to diversity, a theme Vanmechelen considers to be an inevitable ‘accident’ in society. Biological and cultural diversity, or biocultural diversity, have from the very start of his artistic career been an important dynamic for his art.

Interviews with Luisa Maffi (founder of the field of Biocultural Diversity), John Gray and Marc Vermeersch shed light on the matter, curator Peter Noever and Adriano Berengo contributed with their analyses of Vanemechelens exhibitions and two beautiful poems by W.S. Merwin merged the love for nature with love of language.

Read the 3rd Edition of The Accident online

 

 

The 4th edition of The Accident came out to mark recent milestones: the chicken on stage amidst the technological innovations at th Golden Nica for Hybrid Art in Linz, Documenta (13), and the three international awards Vanmechelen received. This Accident focuses on hybridity, on tearing down the boundaries between science and art; between cultures, technologies, viruses; between people and animals; past and present. Its focus, in other words, is contact.

Read The Accident IV online