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Agency vzw was founded in 2019 by artist and activist Kobe Matthys (1970–2023) together with a group of people to support the activity of Agency as a practice.

Agency is the generic name of a Brussels-based agency that was established in 1992. Agency constitutes a growing list of things that resist the split between the classifications of “culture” and “nature” and consequently between ‘expressions’ and ‘ideas’, ‘creations’ and ‘facts’, ‘subjects’ and ‘objects’, ‘humans’ and ‘non-humans’, ‘originality’ and ‘tradition’, ‘individuals’ and ‘collectives’, etc... These things are derived from juridical processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies, affairs and so forth around intellectual property more specificaly copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc... The concept of intellectual property relies upon the assumption of the division between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’. Each thing on the list calls forth the moment of hesitation in terms of this division. Agency invokes things from it’s list in varying assemblies. Each assembly explores topologically a different question of the performative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of art practices.

The organisation’s purpose is 'to explore the interference of the apparatus of intellectual property law for an ecology of artistic practices and to revive a sustainable diversity of practices.'

A praticotheque is what Kobe envisioned the ensemble of the space, the List and library to be. An environment built to allow research, debate and alliance between practices.

In a trajectory supported by the Flemish Community, Agency vzw is today working on ways to open up the praticotheque to the public and continue the practice of Agence.

AGENCY VZW WIKI

The Agency vzw WIKI is an experiment in creating a user-driven and -governed inventory of the praticotheque in a wiki-environment.

For the moment it is under construction by a dedicated working group and can only be consulted with an access. If you wish to have access to the wiki, please send us an email (see below: contact).

You'll find everything you need to know about Agency's wiki and wikis in general in the Agency toolbox.

PUBLIC MOMENTS

• UPCOMING
  • 24/02/2026 12h30-14h00: Curated visit by Laurent Mignon
  • 24/02/2026 14h00-17h00: Edit-a-thon
  • 27/02/2026 18h00-21h00: Jubilee Reading Room # Merzedes Sturm-Lie / De Buik van Brussel (‘The belly of Brussels’) by Lucas Catherine (2019)

• RECENT PAST
  • 12/12/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #45: Another science
  • 05/12/2025: Editathon sessions (first session 10-13h, second session 18-21h)
  • 10/10/2025: Etat des lieux archives, by Nadine, Laboratory for contemporary arts
  • 10/10/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #44: Law & Magic
  • 19/09/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #43: Res Nullius
  • 15/06/2025: The Infrastructure of Archives, a Jubilee programme at M HKA, Antwerp
  • 16/06/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #42: Archipelago of Artistic Practices
  • 22/06/2025 : Assembly: Thing 001359 (Chico Mendez Mural Garden) in the context of The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, (Border Buda, Vilvoorde)
  • 14/12/2024: Dreaming of the commons. How can we keep collective practices alive?
  • 20/01/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #38: Agency
  • 17/03/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #39: Agency and the Undercommons
  • 14/04/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #40: Agence & Notre condition
  • 19/05/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #41: Agency & NICC

RECENT COLLABORATIONS

• experimenting ways to navigate the List of boundary - workshop with ERG students
• Inventorising the library – research by Alice Mahiant
• Exploring the inventory of the Praticauthèque in a wiki environment – with Michael Murtaugh
• Drawing a legal framework for Eavatea – research and workshop by Louise de Bethune and Julie Van Elslande

• Etat des lieux 'Archives' - artistic research supported by NADINE vzw

NEWSLETTER

Sign up by sending an e-mail to info@agentive.org.

CONTACT

Agentschap Agence Agency
Rue Theodore Verhaegenstraat 18
1060 Brussels
info@agentive.org

Agency vzw is supported by

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