Bart de Baere

Bart De Baere (b. 1960) studied archeology and the history of art, but was ‘distracted’ by contemporary art. He has worked as an art critic, worked for Jan Hoet in the Ghent Museum of Contemporary Art (now SMAK), and together they were appointed as commissioners for Documenta IX. De Baere was also an adviser for the Soros Foundations in Eastern Europe, the biennials in Johannesburg and São Paulo, and for the Flemish Minister of Culture in the formulation of a new policy for cultural heritage. Since the exhibition This is the Show and the Show is Many Things at the Ghent museum he has primarily curated exhibitions abroad. He also served as Chairman of the Flemish Museum Commission and is currently Chairman of the Flemish Council for Culture. In 2002 he took up the post of Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MuHKA) in Antwerp. His published writing includes ‘The Integrated Museum’, in Stopping the Process (Helsinki: NIFKA, 1998), and ‘Potentiality and public space, archives as a metaphor and example for a political culture’, in Interarchive (Lüneburg/Cologne: Walther König, 2002).