S.M.A.K. in Ghent celebrates the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition Chambres d’Amis
Chambres d’Amis Turns 40, 30 May 2026 – 10 January 2027
In 2026, S.M.A.K. celebrates the 40th anniversary of Chambres d’Amis, the groundbreaking exhibition in which Jan Hoet took contemporary art beyond the museum walls. Fifty-one international artists showed their work in the living rooms, stair halls and bedrooms of private homes across Ghent, radically redefining the conditions under which art could be experienced.
From 30 May 2026, S.M.A.K. shines a spotlight on the contemporary relevance of this project in an exhibition bringing together works from the 1986 edition that were subsequently acquired by the museum. Three artists — Heike Pallanca, Haim Steinbach and Susanne Kriemann — develop a contemporary reflection on Chambres d’Amis, extending its questions into the present.
The Original Chambres d’Amis
Conceived in 1986, Chambres d’Amis marked a decisive turning point in exhibition-making. Rather than presenting art within the neutral space of the museum, Jan Hoet dispersed it throughout the city, embedding artworks within private homes and everyday environments.
This gesture did not simply relocate art; it transformed it. The domestic setting introduced contingency, intimacy and unpredictability. Visitors encountered works one by one, in spaces shaped by lived experience rather than institutional display. The exhibition unfolded as a journey through the city — an accumulation of encounters that blurred the boundaries between public and private, art and life.
The Exhibition
How do you display works originally conceived for specific, non-institutional settings? This question lies at the heart of Chambres d’Amis Turns 40.
Chambres d'Amis was followed by more exhibitions in urban spaces organised by S.M.A.K., such as Over The Edges (2000) and TRACK (2012). Heike Pallanca (Chambres d’Amis, 1986), Haim Steinbach (Over The Edges, 2000) and Susanne Kriemann (TRACK, 2012) participated in these projects and were invited by S.M.A.K. to each design a museum gallery from within their own artistic practice, creating a new in-situ environment for some of the artworks and archival materials of Chambres d’Amis that are still part of the museum’s collection .
Their interventions do not reconstruct the original exhibition, far from it, but rather create new proposals to look at these works again in a contemporary way, back within the walls of the museum. By rethinking display, context and spectatorship, they give the works from Chambres d’Amis a contemporary resonance that echoes their original concept while speaking directly to today’s visitors.
The exhibition is further framed by an archival presentation that situates the historical significance of Chambres d’Amis, underscoring its lasting influence on curatorial practice and its continued relevance in contemporary discourse.
Central in this archival presentation, S.M.A.K. reinstates the iconic work ‘Le Décor et son Double’ by Daniel Buren, which was one of the most critical interventions towards the curatorial concept of ‘Chambres d’Amis’. After all, Buren created in 1986 an exact copy of the guest room of the collector couple Anton and Annick Herbert, and placed it back in the museum. In close collaboration with the Herbert Foundation, both ‘sides’ of this artwork will be reunited again, and the visitor is given the opportunity to visit the 'original' at the Herbert Foundation at regular intervals during the exhibition.
About
Heike Pallanca
Heike Pallanca’s (°1952, Düsseldorf) work for Chambres d’Amis (1986) remains one of the most conceptually precise articulations of the exhibition’s ambitions. By staging a subtle displacement between representation and reality — an empty room mirrored by a constructed situation elsewhere — she challenged the viewer’s perception of what constitutes the “real” site of the artwork. Her practice continues to investigate perception, spatial ambiguity and the fragile boundary between lived and constructed experience.
Haim Steinbach
Haim Steinbach (°1944, Rehovot, lives in New York City) is internationally recognised for his rigorous exploration of display and value. Since the late 1970s, his work has examined how objects acquire meaning through arrangement, context and cultural framing. By repositioning everyday objects within carefully calibrated structures, Steinbach reveals the systems that govern perception and taste. His contribution resonates strongly with the foundational questions of Chambres d’Amis: how context produces meaning, and how the domestic space can function as a critical site of display.
Susanne Kriemann
Susanne Kriemann’s (°1972, Erlangen) practice unfolds at the intersection of image, history and material processes. Her work investigates the latent narratives embedded in archives and infrastructures, often revealing what remains invisible or overlooked. In the context of Chambres d’Amis Turns 40, Kriemann reflects on the photographical archive of the exhibition, in a contemporary display that balances between nostalgia and expectation.
Practical information
Chambres d'Amis Turns 40
30 May 2026 - 10 January 2027
S.M.A.K
Jan Hoetplein 1
9000 Gent
Curators: Philippe Van Cauteren and Thibaut Verhoeven
Press Preview: Thursday 28 May, 11:00
Public Opening: Friday 29 May, 19:00
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Parallel Exhibition
Carole Vanderlinden: Keep a promise
Running concurrently at S.M.A.K. is the solo exhibition Keep a promise by Belgian artist Carole Vanderlinden, featuring work from the past five years. Vanderlinden’s paintings on canvas and works on paper are difficult to define. They appear simple and compact, yet are highly layered. They emerge from an unplanned, exploratory process of continuous experimentation with paint, colour and rhythm, resulting in compositions that can convey a multitude of meanings. To this end, Vanderlinden gathers preparatory material from her everyday surroundings, philosophy, music, and her sketchbooks. She associates these with chance, art historical references, avant-garde movements, abstract patterns, and more.
About S.M.A.K.
S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent) has its origins in the experimental vision of Jan Hoet, whose curatorial approach fundamentally reshaped the relationship between art and audience. Since its founding, the museum has remained committed to innovation, presenting ambitious exhibitions that challenge traditional formats and engage with the social and spatial conditions of art.
With Chambres d’Amis Turns 40, S.M.A.K. revisits a foundational moment in its history — not as a nostalgic gesture, but as an active framework for thinking about the role of art today.