Koen Broucke (1965) is a Belgian visual artist, historian, pianist and performer. He creates paintings, drawings, publications, installations, music, performances and videos. His work is included in the collections of among others the Stedelijk Museum Het Domein in Sittard, the Vincent Van GoghHuis in Zundert (NL), the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet in Antwerpen, the Museum Dr. Guislain and the S.M.A.K. in Gent, the Musée de la Vie Wallonne in Liège, the Lönnström Art Museum in Rauma (FI)…
A strong interest in texts and research is peculiar to Koen Broucke’s work. In 2019, he became a ‘Doctor of the arts’ with the research ‘The rosy gloom of battle overhead’, An artistic research into the atmospheric layers of history (KU Leuven, LUCA School of Arts, Glasgow School of Art, 2014-2019) which resulted in a book and an exhibition at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens/Woning Van Wassenhove. In 2021, the S.M.A.K. (Gent) showed his installation ‘The Library’. That same year, he published ‘The memory of snow, painted diary 2013-2021’ (Artha, Art & Heritage Books). In 2022, he illustrated ‘Boerenpsalm’ by Felix Timmermans (Standaard Uitgeverij) and ‘Het land tussen de Talen’ by Stefan Zweig (Van Oorschot).
Koen Broucke loves collaborations. He regularly appears on stage with musicians such as Jan Michiels, Piet Van Bockstal, Britt Truyts, Geert Hellings and Mauro Pawlowski. Together with Koen Peeters, Peter Holvoet-Hanssen and Pascal Verbeken, he made the book ‘Miavoye’ (De Bezige Bij, 2014) about the dead of Flemish main poet Paul Van Ostaijen. With Koen Peeters, he created ‘Room in Ostend’, an exhibition at Mu.ZEE and a performance at ‘Theater aan Zee’ in 2018 and a book in 2019.
