About Johan Grimonprez

In the late 1980s and 1990s, a prolific generation of emerging media artists, including Johan Grimonprez, found a nurturing and supportive institutional environment in Flanders. Leuven’s student cultural centre STUC (now STUK), Brussels’ ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts, and the public broadcaster BRT (now VRT) all provided a rich environment for experimentation. 

Grimonprez demonstrated his experimental approach with his first work Kobarweng or Where is Your Helicopter (1992), which was included in the collection of LI-MA's predecessor, the Netherlands Media Art Institute. Subsequently, he broadened his artistic perspective by studying in New York and at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht from 1995. 

Two years later, Grimonprez gained widespread recognition with his groundbreaking and award-winning work DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. Since then, his feature-length documentaries and short video art works have been shown internationally at festivals, exhibitions and on television.His work is included in the collections of prominent museums such as the Tate (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen) and the Hammer Museum (LA), as well as numerous private collections such as the Fondation Pinault (Paris). 

DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, Johan Grimonprez, 1997, 01:07:54, in collection: LI-MA.

Observing Media Manipulation

Long before the rise of today's dominant visual culture, Grimonprez advocated a critical approach to the images that surround us. Since 1997, Grimonprez has emerged as a distinctive observer and analyst of the images and narratives shaped by all types of visual media. His work examines how the media present and interpret historical and current events, influencing not only our perception of these events but also their course. 

Therefore, in his works, he asks who controls our imagination in a world where truth feels lost amidst a wave of media manipulation. Is it the storyteller who can embrace contradictions and travel through time in our minds? His work explores the boundaries between art and cinema, blending documentary and fiction to create new narratives that highlight multiple realities. He tells personal stories that connect to the larger issues of globalisation. In his work, he dissects the construction of narratives and the anxieties that shape political and social conversations as a result of them.

Grimonprez's carefully researched and edited works, from DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y to his most recent and controversial award-winning work, Soundtrack to a Coup d’ État (2024) on the botched decolonisation of Congo after the end of the Belgian occupation, testify to his profound engagement with images. What do images show, distort and hide? 

Johan Grimonprez & LI-MA

His residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy laid the foundations for his connections with Dutch media art organisations, including NIMk, the Dutch Institute for Media Art, founded in 1994 through the merger of Time Based Arts and MonteVideo. When NIMk closed in 2012, its collection - including works by Johan Grimonprez - was transferred to the LI-MA collection, which also acquired his new works.

Please click on one of the tiles below to discover Grimonprez's works in the LI-MA collection. From his debut Kobarweng or Where is Your Helicopter (1992), to landmark films such as DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, Looking for Alfred (2005) and Double Take (2009), to more recent works such as RAYMOND TALLIS | ON TICKLING (2017), but also some lesser known works in our collection are available for screening and exhibition. Please contact our distribution team for further details.

Header image: DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, Johan Grimonprez, 1997, 01:07:54, in collection: LI-MA.