JAN HOET’S DYNAMISM was—and is—so wonderful! He was all concentrated energy and passion. His face moved. His body moved. He would move the world for art: box, flirt, lie, whatever it took. Because he still believed that art was worth it—but also that life was worth it. He believed this even more strongly than the artists with whom he worked. Many after him tried to make another show like “Chambres d’amis” (Guest Rooms, 1986), at the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, in Belgium, but did not succeed, because they were not really concerned with people who were not interested in art. He was. Nor did they really love the places such people came from. He did.
You can’t make a good exhibition in the house of another if you don’t enjoy both art and the other.
Marlene Dumas is an artist based in Amsterdam.