Mark Manders and Melanie Deboutte

Mark Manders in conversation with curator Melanie Deboutte, on the occasion of his exhibition at Xavier Hufkens (25 October—21 December 2024).

“As a child, I was very interested in the human mind—both its strength and its weakness, which led me to decide to become a writer. I started out by making a floor plan of all the writing materials I had and decided to write about that imaginary building for the rest of my life. Soon, I realised that it’d be much better to write with objects than with words, so I eventually became an artist instead of a writer.”— Mark Manders

Melanie Deboutte is Director/Curator at Roger Raveel Museum in Machelen-aan-de-Leie. After studying Art Science at the Universities of Leuven and Ghent, she explored the Belgian art world as a staff member at various museums, from S.M.A.K., Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens and Mu.ZEE to M Leuven, Z33 and M HKA. She has been working as an independent curator and researcher since 2013 and has organized several exhibitions, often with a particular focus on the development of contemporary art from the 1960s to the 1980s in Belgium. She also regularly writes reviews and essays for art magazines, collection and exhibition catalogues and artist publications.