Since 2021, Els Vermang emancipated Société from its physical place of origin and transformed it into a curatorial platform capable of intervening in different contexts in an open manner by multiplying collaborations. 

 

As such, Els curated the exhibition ‘Pars Pro Toto’, questioning postmodernism as a plastic as well as a philosophical condition (September 2022, SB34 Clovis), conceptualized the night radio program ‘The Night Watch’ questioning insomnia as a condition for creation (April > October 2023, Lyl – The Merode - Société), and curated the exhibition ‘The Hoarders’, questioning hoarding as a condition for creation and presentation (Galeria Jaqueline Martins / Boiler Room, June-July 2023).

 

In between 2015 and 2020, Société was run by Els Vermang and Manuel Abendroth. It was the follower up MR XYZ 01, which was found and directed by Els Vermang, Manuel Abendroth and Jerome Decock from LAb[au] (www.lab-au.com) from 2003 until 2013. It was dedicated to digital culture. 

 

With a program ranging from exhibitions, screenings, audiovisual performances and conferences, to artist-residences, workshops and LAb[au]’s own R&D, MR XYZ 01 was as much a platform for presentation as creation, where LAb[au]’s artistic and technological know-how was acting as support through a transmedial, interdisciplinary and collaborative approach.

 

It was located in a former fifties store with mezzanine and a 2-storeys high shop window in Brussels’ downtown, combining a transparent white exhibition space upstairs and an enclosed black performance space downstairs.

 

It staged approximately 3 exhibitions a year, each of them accompanied by a contextual program of breakfast presentations and audiovisual concerts, totalling over the course of 10 years at 35 exhibitions (for example solo exhibitions by Peter Beyls (MR.xpo31, 2011), C.E.B. Reas (MR.xpo22, 2008), Jan Robert Leegte (MR.xpo18, 2007),... and group exhibitions such as ‘artomaton’ (MR.xpo27, 2010 - on the place of the robot in digital art), ‘Digital Territories’ (MR.xpo19, 2007 - on digital architecture and media facades), ‘MicroBytes and KiloBeats’ (MR.xpo03, 2004 - on the demo scene), 12 residencies (for example Mika Vainio (MR.tmp12, 2009)) and 60 events (for example concerts by tINYlITTLEELEMENTS (MR.wav23) and Gangpol und Mit (MR.wav25), presentation of Eleonore de Lavandeyra Schoffer (MR.ini17) performances of Scrambled Hackz (MR.ini11) and Synchronator (MR.ini16)).