For the opening of Kunsthal Gent, artist and architect Olivier Goethals presents an impressive spatial intervention that functions as a new platform within the existing building. As structural furniture, it accommodates the space for new use. This intervention also shifts the public entrance from Lange Steenstraat to Vrouwebroersstraat. The new entrance offers an inviting view of the monumental hall church.
KHG 01 is the first of a series of interventions in dialogue with the artistic programme. The monumental building will gradually change into its new shape as ‘a city of contemporary art’, in which different identities come together and respond to each other. The interventions of Olivier Goethals form the spatial support for these changes.
Olivier Goethals (1980, based in Ghent) studied Architecture and Urban Development. He is working simultaneously as architect and artist. In his wide practice he researches the connection between physical space and consciousness. Olivier made spatial interventions and artistic installations for venues such as: Z33 Hasselt, CIAP Hasselt, Extra City Antwerp, Gallery Marion De Cannière Antwerp, Be-Part Waregem, NUCLEO Ghent, LUCA Ghent, … Previously he worked as a freelance senior architect for De Vylder Vinck Taillieu for eight years. Since 2010, he is teaching at the KU Leuven Architecture Department. He was a guest teacher at RU Ghent faculty of Architecture, LUCA School of Arts Experimental Studio and ETH Zurich faculty of Architecture, among other institutes. Olivier is in charge of the design and implementation of all spatial interventions for art collective 019.
