Hans Theys is a twentieth-century philosopher and art historian. He has written and designed dozens of books on the works of contemporary artists and published hundreds of essays, interviews and reviews in books, catalogues and magazines. All his publications are based on actual collaborations and conversations with artists.

This platform was developed by Evi Bert (M HKA / Centrum Kunstarchieven Vlaanderen) in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (Research group Archivolt), M HKA, Antwerp and Koen Van der Auwera. We also thank Idris Sevenans (HOR) and Marc Ruyters (Hart Magazine).

Vaast Colson

©Vaast Colson
Kalpetran, 2003
Photography , 97 x 69 cm
lambda colorprint, aluminium

Kalpetran is the title of this autobiographical work: a photograph of the artist donning folkloric alpine attire while searching for a particular stone that he was carrying around as a child one day during a holiday with his parents in the Swiss Grächen. Colson had been forced to leave this stone behind, and this performance shows him trying to retrieve this talismanic trace of a long-lost innocence – the philosopher’s stone which may well have put him on his way towards becoming an artist.