In 2019, S.M.A.K. will be twenty years old. Reason enough to fill the whole museum with a selection from the collection for the first time. We shall lead you into the labyrinth of contemporary art on the basis of about 200 works (10% of the whole collection).

In this exhibition we are not only looking back, but also at the present and the future. You will see parts of the S.M.A.K. collection as you never have before: from iconic art and works by well-known artists to hidden gems from the collection, supplemented by purchases made over the last twenty years.

The art history we know provides the undercurrent for an exhibition that reaches out to you: on the one hand you are guided in a discovery of the various connections that are made, and on the other you are invited to seek possible links for yourself.

The motif of this exhibition comprises the artwork and the artist, and the underlying reason is the need to establish a fully-fledged museum of contemporary art in Ghent to accommodate the collection both in view and out of sight.

With works by Francis Alÿs, David Hammons, Christoph Büchel, Kader Attia, Francis Bacon, Isa Melsheimer, Marcel Broodthaers, Lois Weinberger, Ann Veronica Janssens, N. Dash, Nedko Solakov, Robert Therrien, Wim Delvoye, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Pascal Marthine Tayou, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Dara Birnbaum, Rinus Van de Velde, Mark Manders, Luc Tuymans, Panamarenko et al.