Frank Theys | °1963
Frank Theys is a filmmaker, writer and visual artist. He lives and works in Brussels and Amsterdam. His audiovisual work varies from video and interactive installations to documentary, experimental film and theatre performance and has been acquired for the collections of e.g. the MU HKA Antwerp, the S.M.A.K. Ghent and the Centre National de la Cinématographie Paris.
The work of Frank Theys is characterised by a scientific approach to existential reflections. Technology itself has become a subject and tool for drama. Artistic concepts, dramatic subjects and characters are often scientifically analysed, human figures transformed by the technical manipulation of the image. Scientific imagery is approached artistically.
Frank Theys is considered one of the founders of Belgian media art. In 1989 Theys cofounded the Argos centre for art and media. Argos became an internationally renowned place for video art and new media. He was also co-founder of Dziga, Belgian union for media artists, of which he has subsequently been the chairman, secretary and delegate to the government. He co-curated the Victoria Festival in 1994 and 1995 (international performance festival in Ghent), Beeldenstorm II in 2004 (media art festival in Kortrijk) and The Brainstorm Sessions, a multidisciplinary festival on art and brain research at the Brakke Grond, Amsterdam in 2014.
After being house director for the Victoria Theatre (Ghent), he started his own media production company Votnik. Subsequently, in 2011, he co-founded Escautville with fellow artists Wim Catrysse, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Ria Pacquée, Koen Theys and curator Ulrike Lindmayr.
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