Framing: A Museum
By Vedran Kopljar
This one-week research class departs from the ongoing debate around the role and function of museums of contemporary art, now and in the future. During the class, students will be introduced to the structure and functioning of M HKA on multiple levels (curation, collection, production, etc.), alongside a brief historical introduction to the concept of museums.
The class will focus on debate and group discussion around the perception of museums of contemporary art and a critique of their functioning, with the aim of speculating on what a future museum of contemporary art could be. The conversation would be fed by students probing and experiencing the museum from multiple perspectives (societal, marginal, artistic).
Students are invited to respond to the museum with temporary spatial intervention, printed matter or other gestures within the possibilities of the context. The class will be held on the grounds of the museum (tbc).
Vedran Kopljar
Vedran Kopljar (°1991 in Slavonski Brod, Croatia), lives and works in Antwerp. In his practice, he is driven by his interest in language, communication and perception, he overturns ingrained thought patterns and challenges us to take new positions.
In 2019 he founded his 'Plank Communication Center', through which he not only explores the boundaries of conventions within the art world, but also the possibilities of communication with objects of art namely the plank works of the American minimalist artist John McCracken (1934).
He participated in solo and group exhibitions in a.o. Museum M (Leuven), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), NMSU (Zagreb), Roger Raveelmuseum (Veurne), M HKA, (Antwerp), Kunsthal Extra City (Antwerp), LambdaLambdaLambda (Prishtina, Kosovo), Brakke Grond (Amsterdam, Netherlands), CONVENT (Ghent), RU (Brooklyn, USA) and TYSON (Cologne, Germany).
Kopljar’s PhD project at the Academy, PRACTICE: A METAPHOR - Metaphorizing practices and practicing metaphors breaks down the artist’s practice into sub-practices to see their potential as metaphors and questions the role of metaphor on the level of artistic practices rather than at the level of the artwork itself.
(Image: Museum at Risk, M HKA, 2025, © Sebastian Steveniers)
>> This research class is part of the Research Week during the annual research festival ARTICULATE.
