During the period 2020-2021 Adam Leech was a resident artist at S.M.A.K. He concludes his trajectory with this exhibition, 'The Guide'.

Adam Leech’s (b. 1973, San Diego, CA) oeuvre is characterised by a fascination with the human spirit. His work explores different forms of consciousness and the way they produce experiences, emotions and relationships. During his residency, he attempted to understand these subjective processes in relation to observing art in a museum context. To this end, Leech conducted conversations within all of S.M.A.K.’s teams and its board. He simultaneously corresponded with academics and experts in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and the occult. In this way, he created a polyphonous field acquiring knowledge about aesthetic experiences while also deriving meaning from its immeasurability.

‘The Guide’ comprises a series of paintings and a video work. It is an exhibition that evokes astonishment with regard to human physiology, the psyche and perception. It seeks to stimulate self-scrutiny and speculatively ‘guides’ the viewer through scientific theses, empirical findings and myths towards an awareness of his or her condition. During his residency, Leech also created an unconventional visitor’s guide in the form of a series of YouTube tutorials, as well as developing a psychological experiment into the museum experience in collaboration with the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University.