Marc De Blieck: Point de voir

From October 18, 2025 to March 8, 2026, S.M.A.K. presents the first museum solo exhibition by Belgian artist Marc De Blieck. Entitled Point de voir, the exhibition brings together various series of photographs from the past 25 years.

Marc De Blieck (b. 1958, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium) questions the expectation that a photographer must communicate a particular insight or viewpoint. He challenges the viewer by disrupting the link between point of view as physical position and point of view as opinion. The exhibition’s title refers to the concept of point de voir (point of seeing), a term coined by the French pedagogue, philosopher, writer, filmmaker, and artist Fernand Deligny. Unlike a point de vue (viewpoint), a 'point of seeing' is imaginary. It cannot, therefore, be taken or occupied. 

Although his images don’t make statements about the world they depict, they are neither vague nor merely suggestive. Instead, De Blieck concentrates on what makes photography unique: its extraordinary sharpness and capacity for detail.

His images invite us to look closely. Though there is much to see, they withhold immediate clarity: something stubbornly resists. De Blieck breaks through our habitual ways of seeing, among other things through the camera’s wide field of vision, exceeding that of the human eye, and through his play with colour, format, and printing techniques. 

With this exhibition, S.M.A.K. wishes to highlight an important oeuvre that has long remained in the shadows.