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In today’s world of artificial intelligence, fake news, and deepfake videos, distinguishing between reality and fiction has become more pressing than ever before. But instead of strictly delineating between illusion and facts, some artists allow both to coexist by embodying fictional alter egos. They craft artistic personas complete with their own biographies and present their fiction as if it were fact.

In ‘Alias,’ works of artists who operate under one or more alter egos are brought together. By adopting a different identity, artists can break free from gender or cultural issues, the rules of the art world, and the capitalist system that turns names into brands. Every fictional artist has a unique context that defines their work. This context plays a crucial role in determining the utilisation and rationale behind their fiction. What strategies lie behind fictional artists? Do they develop on the level of the artist themselves? Do they touch upon the art world or emerge as a reaction to society?

Please note: Some works in this exhibition may not be suitable for all ages.

Curator: Valerie Verhack

Imagining names

Artists operating under a fictional alias embrace a blank canvas: a fresh start where everything remains open, including the choice of a name. With fictional artists, this is seldom arbitrary. A new name implies escaping from all forms of predestination, such as a historical identity or psychologically inherited traits. Likewise, choosing a common generic name (John Doe Co., John Dogg) or a political name (Janez Janša Janez Janša Janez Janša) can disrupt the conventional naming system. What is the value of a signature (Ernest T.) or a name stamp (Herman Smit) as a visual sign of authenticity when conceived or placed by fictional artists? In this room, works are shown by fictional artists whose names play an essential role in our experience or interpretation of their work.

It’s worth noting that Western visual art production has traditionally been less inclined to utilise alternate personas, heteronyms, or pseudonyms compared to literature, for instance. From the early Renaissance, Western visual art production shifted from a system rooted in guild cooperatives to individual creativity. The introduction of the artist’s signature coincides with this change, and within this context, few artists deviated from their original names. Since then, artists are expected to create art under their own name and signature precisely because of the significant symbolic value and cultural capital associated with them.

Faces of fiction

Much like the names of fictional artists, the personas they embrace are typically not arbitrary designations. How do you create (self) portraits of artists who essentially do not exist?

The (self) portrait is synonymous with awareness and is also intrinsically linked to identity: it breathes ‘I exist/they exist’. Artists literally and metaphorically play out the complexity of what that self exactly entails through signifiers linked to gender, origin, or culture. A portrait can be a feminist critique of the restrictive societal image of what it means to be a woman (Roberta Breitmore). Or it can form a critique of ‘production’ within the capitalist system (Claire Fontaine). A group portrait can visualise within which domains of the art world you will profile yourself (Brian O’Doherty). Alternatively, it can serve as a means for the artist to disappear as an author in favour of the network of collectors surrounding them (Philippe Thomas).

Just like in what we consider reality, there is no singular truth. In that sense, fictional artists’ (self) portraits exhibit an affinity with institutional critique: both aim to reveal aspects of reality behind the representations that conceal it.

The Yoon-Ja Choi & Paul Devautour Collection

Art Keller, Richard Allibert, and Gladys Clover... They are just a few of the many fictional artists collected by the French artists Yoon-Ja Choi & Paul Devautour. Until 1985, both create art under their own names, only to then embrace the complexity and layered nature of various fictional alter egos and roles within the art world.

A portion of the Yoon-Ja Choi & Paul Devautour collection is exhibited in this room. Martin Tupper, who operates as an artist, critic and at the same time is a fictional alias of Yoon-Ja Choi & Paul Devautour, conceived the arrangement of the collection, which simultaneously evokes a showroom, an art fair booth, or the domestic setting of a private collection.

Martin Tupper’s ‘Show Room of the Yoon-Ja Choi & Paul Devautour Collection’ (1992) presents a selection of various artistic movements and tendencies. For example, artist Richard Allibert works exclusively with readymades: simple objects or everyday items left unchanged. Buchal & Clavel question the principle of the artist duo together. Artist J. Duplo, on the other hand, exclusively works with Lego bricks.

Rewrite the past

Creating a fictional art practice today can also impact the past. By supposedly bringing historically but entirely fictional artists to life with their own context and narrative, a piece of history is corrected. And, although the practices of Justine Frank, Darko Maver or Florence Hasard are figments of imagination, as spectators, we are eager to believe in these stories presented as proven facts.

Their history is brought together by the most diverse pieces of evidence, such as vintage photos and film fragments, press clippings, and documentaries with interviews of those involved, ... Not only the creation of this evidence but also how it is exhibited, and communicated to an audience, reinforces the authenticity of these practices that rewrite the past.

They demonstrate that historiography is not finished but is still in full development. Creating a new version of what the past could have been, often from the perspective of a marginalised social position, undermines the effect of historical distance: as if history is conveniently something from long-gone times that do not concern us.

Defying the art world

Fictional art frequently functions within a framework borrowed from reality; it may encompass historical contexts but just as easily follow the contemporary art world.

Various fictional artists take liberties with the (un)written rules of the so-called art system by portraying themselves as actors from within that art world. Thus, individuals like Leo Josefstein or Hubert Van Es claim to be artists even though they hold very different authoritative roles within the Belgian artistic scene. Alternatively, from a fictional artist like Emily Feather, a desire arises for anonymity and the abandonment of individual authorship.

The anonymous group of artists, Bernadette Corporation, adopts a quasi-corporate identity, to critique a global culture that constructs identity through consumption and branding. In 2005, Bernadette Corporation releases the jointly written novel ‘Reena Spaulings’, which would then serve as the foundation for new artist initiatives such as Henry Codax or the collective project Reena Spaulings, which functions as both an artist persona and an art gallery located in New York.

The necessity of an alias

Fictional art can address pressing societal issues such as culture, identity, gender, politics, and censorship. It’s always uncertain whether opting for fictional artistry is driven by the intention to offer a platform for conveying potentially contentious messages.

The works in this room testify to engagement and the relevance of fictional artistry within the societal debate. Does fictional artistry provide a safe position to create politically inspired (Oksana Pasaiko) or explicit work (NV Panneel)? Does fictional artistry imply a means to disappear as an attempt to be free without being judged or discriminated against (Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo))? Are we sufficiently aware that Western art history is often unnecessarily projected as a reference to artworks that don’t even subscribe to that tradition (Suha Traboulsi)? What form takes a fictional art production created within the context of a totalitarian regime (Charles Rosenthal)?