Jef Geys

Jef Geys (29 May 1934 – 12 February 2018) was a Belgian artist born in Leopoldsburg, Belgium.

Work Geys is known for the strong social and political motives of his work. He is perhaps best known for his proposal to blow up the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (KMSKA) in Antwerp in 1971 at the end of his solo exhibition held there.

In a letter to the Minister of Culture from November 1970, which was published later in the catalog Ooidonk 78, Geys described his plans about the explosion of the KMSKA as follows: "Departing from the idea that every society, authority, institution, organization, person, etc. includes the seeds of its own destruction, the first and most important task of every society, authority, etc. in my opinion is to recognize, isolate and neutralize these seeds. The most efficient way to achieve all this then seems to me to systematically, scientifically and deliberately set about the problem. […] So I would like to start a project, which, if executed, would result in the destruction of the Museum voor Schone Kunsten."

Kempens Informatieblad In 1971, Geys took on the freely-distributed newspaper Kempens Informatieblad which was a local publication in Kempen, Belgium, which is also called Campine (French). Geys prints and distributes Kempens house-to-house, and often produces them in line with his exhibitions.