Together with HISK curator Daniella Géo, the candidate laureates had an inspiring talk with Anny De Decker, co-founder of Wide White Space gallery. It was a privilege to listen to Anny’s first-hand account about the art context in the sixties and seventies and the worldwide known and emblematic Wide White Space, which was quite influential and contributed to shaping the contemporary art scene in Belgium. Anny also talked about her different roles as an art historian, gallerist, collector, teacher and wife of the late German artist Bernd Lohaus, with whom she initiated Wide White Space.

Afterwards, curator Stella Lohaus talked about the Bernd Lohaus Foundation and how it was to organize her father’s estate. Then the artists visited her current art space LLS Paleis, where Stella talked about it as well as about her former Stella Lohaus gallery, focusing on the different structures and approaches. In addition, the candidate laureates saw the current exhibition of Lise Duclaux.

Later, the HISK artists went to Guillaume Bijl’s residence-multifunctional space, where he talked about his work and his work process. He showed his display room (former LLS 387), storage facilities, … and had a talk with the artists, while eating a piece of his birthday cake.

To close the day, the candidate laureates had a conversation with Escautville’s directors Ulrike Lindmayr and Vincent Streep and artist and co-founder Ria Pacquée. They explained how their platform for audiovisual production and distribution works and responds to the artist’s and filmmaker’s needs.