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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

• 15/04/2026 18:00-21:00 : Nuit des Galeries, as part of the Parcours d'Artistes in Saint-Gilles
• 29/04/2026 18:00-20:30 : Jubilee Reading Room #49 Jonathan De Maeyer / book tba
• 07/05/2026 09:30-12:30 : Breakfast for Insatiable Researchers as part of OPENFIELD, a five-day gathering dedicated to the possible futures and autonomies of artistic research organized by a.pass
• 09/05/2026 14:00-17:00 : Editathon #3
• 19/05/2026 12:30-14:00 : Curated visit #3
• 29/05/2026 18:00-20:30 : Reading Room #50

RECENT PAST

• 31/03/2026 12:30-14:00 : Curated visit #2 by Erika Sprey
• 31/03/2026 14:00-17:00 : Edit-a-thon #2
• 26/03/2026 18:00-20:30 : Reading Room #48: Agency & Translation with Amit Leblang / 'Scandals of translation: towards an ethics of difference' by Lawrence Venuti
• 19/03/2026 16:30-18:00 panel discussion in the framework of Emerging Networks of Care: Artists’ Estates and Legacies, the 2026 MACCH/MERIAN Conference, hosted by the Jan van Eyck Academy
• 27/02/2026 18:00-21:00: Jubilee Reading Room #47 Merzedes Sturm-Lie / De Buik van Brussel (‘The belly of Brussels’) by Lucas Catherine (2019)
• 24/02/2026 12:30-14:00: Curated visit #1 by Laurent Mignon
• 24/02/2026 14:00-17:00: Edit-a-thon #1

A LITTLE WHILE AGO

2025

• 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
• 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)
• 16/06/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #42: Archipelago of Artistic Practices
• 15/06/2025: The Infrastructure of Archives, a Jubilee programme at M HKA, Antwerp
• 19/05/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #41: Agency & NICC
• 14/04/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #40: Agence & Notre condition
• 17/03/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #39: Agency and the Undercommons
• 20/01/2025: Jubilee Reading Room #38: Agency

2024

• 14/12/2024: Dreaming of the commons. How can we keep collective practices alive?

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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