The starting point of the solo exhibition As it (n)ever was by Athos Burez (1987, BE) is a collection of never-before-seen historical postcards from and about Genk.
The postcard may be perceived today as a nostalgic gadget, but once it was the communication channel par excellence to share short, frivolous messages with the home front. A handwritten message of a few lines told the tourist where he was, what struck him and what the day would bring next.
But just as important as the text is the image, usually a photograph, on the front of the postcard. Since the mid-19th century - when the postcard took off throughout Europe - landscapes, cityscapes, monuments and other curiosities have been carefully photographed. The photographer in question remained anonymous and worked for a publisher or producer who had the postcards printed in large editions. The combination between the anonymous photographer and the format of the postcard as a small-scale communication tool means that the pictorial qualities and content choices of the images are underestimated. And that is entirely unjustified. If you take your time, you will see staged settings, eccentric characters and sublime pieces of nature.

Contemporary photographer Athos Burez drew inspiration from the collection of 1,500 pieces that capture 150 years of Genk; from nature reserve over spa town, artists' village to industrial city, tourist attraction and grid city. The result is more than sixty new sculptures exhibited in various formats and materialities. Burez's images also span 150 years, but take a run at our notion of objectivity and perception of time. After all, what facet of a city deserves to be immortalized? What events do we want to remember? What is important and what is (seemingly) banal? Athos Burez plays with history and the results are meticulously staged scenes in which fact and fiction intermingle and the big and small stories of a local history are playfully juxtaposed. In a contemporary version of the demolished Hôtel des Artistes, Burez performs a motley crew of guests who make the viewer time travel to a time and place that was (n)ever there.