Stefaan Dheedene – Very Very Hush Hush
is the third solo show at our gallery on view until June 14 – 2026
"Very Very Hush Hush" begins with a pair of stylised grey men’s wigs orbiting one another. They serve as a shared prop for a public display of power and secrecy. Any wearers must assume the roles of ruler versus lackey, the latter bowing his head with due humility to whisper privileged inside information into his ruler’s ear. This takes place in full view of everyone, of course, but sotto voce, via silent vibrations intended solely for that one ear.
The linked 3D wigs (more helmet than hairstyle, really) are derived from a press photograph taken at a primary school in Florida on 11 September 2001, at 09:07 to be precise. Andrew Card was the lackey on duty: in the middle of a reading session by G.W. Bush, he stepped forward as chief of staff to, in his own words, whisper the following words into his ear: ‘A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack.’
The sound installation consists of 3 parts:

• The Butler (crisismanagement meeting): The radio play transports us to the boardroom of an organisation grappling with a sudden crisis.
• Dashnoard :The streamlined centre section of a self-driving car with protest songs on the playlist have been skilfully reduced to wordless background noise
• 28 protest signs: featuring quotes from the company
• A second sculpture: "The Swap": a prototype of street furniture with familiar anti-homeless studs—a passive-aggressive intervention that must once have seemed like a good idea during a meeting of professionals—forms the setting for a discreet, if somewhat transparent, transfer of secret documents in a briefcase.
• "A Theme Park Ride with Sandy, Mike, and Frank"
  In that sense, it is not illogical that we arrive on the first floor at the architecture of theme parks. In the early 1970s, following the opening of Disney World Orlando, Roberto Venturi proclaimed that Disney had connected more effectively with what people truly want than anything architects had ever offered them. (For Disneyland Anaheim, he had relied solely on set designers specialized in illusion, not architects).
  Karal Ann Marling speaks of “the architecture of reassurance”: reassurance, safety, life on cruise control. Yet Frank, Mike, and Sandy—the troubleshooters on duty in this second narrative—are working behind the scenes to fix yet another malfunction. “This is what you can do when something unexpected happens,”
  Fragments text "Wheel of Fortune for Beginners", 2026 by Bram Van Damme
  Stefaan Dheedene (born in Kortrijk Belgium in 1975) lives and works in Gent.

Artists: STEFAAN DHEEDENE