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«PLUS» & Y D S is a film that centres on the work and ideas of Ghent-based artist Yves De Smet (1946-2004). It focuses on the encounters he had in 1965 with fellow artist Mark Verstockt, who was 15 years his senior, and the events that De Smet organized in 1965-1966 in the Academieraadzaal (academy council chamber) of the University of Ghent, with the help of other artists of his generation, including Gerard Geerinckx, Willy Plompen, Albert Rubens and Jan Van Den Abbeel. Through the spring of 1966, De Smet presented exhibitions, discussions and performances under the heading of the symbol “+”, or «PLUS». The activities became known as the «PLUS» evenings. To seal the alliance amongst PLUS enthusiasts, he even designed a membership card, the «PLUS» card. It is this unique artefact that plays the lead role in the film.

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     The Academieraadzaal where the PLUS evenings were held forms the setting for a poignant series of entanglements. An older artist attempts to lure a younger artist along the path of geometric abstraction, upon which he himself has firmly embarked. In numerous letters to one another, friends separated by obligatory military service joke and tease, but fail to succeed in lending a guiding hand. A mysterious transaction of a work of art sparks the climax of the drama. Does «PLUS» stand for “positive thinking” (De Smet) and an idealistic programme of “constructive (and constructed) ethics of life” (Geerinckx), or is it simply a logo for a one-man enterprise?

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     In black-and-white (at frugal moments also in colour), the film includes a strong selection of what had until recently been presumed lost photographs and archival materials, supported by an impressive soundtrack with fragments from works by composer Emmanuel Van Weerst (participant in the second «PLUS» evening), mixed by Laszlo Umbreit, who also contributed a composition of his own.

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     In De Witte Raaf, art critic Christoph Van Gerrewey wrote about «PLUS» & Y D S: "A number of the events (…) are enacted once again (and very convincingly), juxtaposed with historic images and text fragments in voice-over. The result is a lightly ironic and humoristic, but also a pleasing, secretively mysterious introduction.”

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     «PLUS» & Y D S was realized by Koen Brams and Lisa Spilliaert. It premiered on 29 April 2022 at Convent in Ghent, in conjunction with the exhibition «PLUS» and Yves De Smet: Ideology, Comradery and Rivalry on the Playing Field of Art in Ghent between 1965 and 1970. The eponymous book was released by Posture Editions at the same time.

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