Agency is the generic name of a Brussels-based agency that was founded in 1992 by Kobe Matthys.
The modern concept of intellectual property relies fundamentally upon the assumption of a division between the ontological categories of “nature” and “culture”. However, for many art practices such a distinction is difficult to make. Agency constitutes a growing list of things that resist this split. These things are derived from juridical processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies, affairs and so forth, around intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc...).
Agency calls things forth from its list via varying assemblies inside exhibitions, performances, publications, etc... Each assembly explores in a topological way a different aspect of the performative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of art practices.
Most recently Agency presented assemblies based on its list of things at Objectif-Exhibitions, Antwerpen (2011), The Showroom, London (2011), Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2010) and in "Animism" at Extra City and M HKA, Antwerp, Kunsthalle Bern, Generali Foundation, Vienna, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2009 -12), “Grand Domestic Revolution”, Casco, Utrecht (2011-2012), "Speech Matters" at the Venice Biennale (2011), "Watchmen, Liars, Dreamers" at Le Plateau, Paris (2010), etc...