Behind Marcel Duchamp’s legacy

A conversation on the work of one of the art world’s most polarising figure.

Marcel Duchamp, alongside Picasso and Matisse, stands as one of the most transformative figures of twentieth-century art—not for the volume of his work, but for the revolutionary ideas that redefined the very essence of art. With his groundbreaking concept of the readymade, Duchamp challenged traditional aesthetics and reimagined the role of the artist, laying the foundation for conceptual and contemporary movements. As a visionary who broke down artistic boundaries, Duchamp became arguably the most influential figure of modern art history.

GLEAN Magazine and TheMerode proudly present a compelling conversation on Duchamp’s enduring legacy, featuring Jeanne Brun and Kendell Geers, and moderated by Kathleen Weyts, Editor-in-chief of GLEAN.

Jeanne Brun, Deputy director of the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou, is the co-curator of the highly anticipated Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Joining her is Kendell Geers, an artist whose wide-ranging practice is steeped in Duchamp’s influence. In 2024, Geers wrote ‘Duchamp’s Endgame: Da Vinci, Dürer, Ingres & Poussin’, published by Mercatorfonds, Brussels, a revelatory book tracing the true origins of Duchamp's work back to Renaissance and Neoclassical masters.

This rare conversation offers more than art historical insight—it invites us to rethink how artists create, how we interpret their work, and how the past continues to shape the future of art.

Photo: Marcel Duchamp with the artwork: Marcel Duchamp, À regarder (l’autre côté du verre) d’un œil, de près, pendant presque une heure, 1918. Photo by Allan Grant for LIFE Picture Collection.

speaker

Jeanne Brun is Deputy director of the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou and chief curator in charge of collections. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Chartes, her research has focused on the Dada and Surrealist movements. In her previous positions, including at the Centre Pompidou, she has curated or been artistic director of a number of exhibitions and events, the most recent of which are: Le Rêveur de la forêt (Musée Zadkine, 2019), Victor Brauner (Musée d'art moderne de Paris, 2020), la Nuit Blanche 2020, L'âme primitive (Musée Zadkine, 2021), Le Prix Marcel Duchamp 2024 (Centre Georges Pompidou), and Pom Pom Pidou, une histoire renversante de l'art moderne (Tripostal de Lille, April 2024).

speaker

Kendell Geers is a pivotal figure in contemporary African art, whose powerful works explore themes of identity, resistance, and the complex legacies of history. Born in apartheid-era South Africa, Geers' journey from a working-class family to an artist in exile has profoundly shaped his unique artistic language, defying simple categorization. Geers gained international recognition early in his career, with notable participation in the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale and Documenta 11 in 2002, curated by the esteemed Okwui Enwezor. In 2013, Enwezor further cemented Geers' significance by curating his retrospective at the prestigious Haus der Kunst in Munich. Now based in Brussels, Geers continues to push artistic boundaries, creating works that resonate globally while remaining firmly rooted in his African identity and experiences.

moderator

Kathleen Weyts is the editor-in-chief of GLEAN. From 2019 to 2023 she was the director of HART magazine, the Belgian magazine for contemporary art (and predecessor of GLEAN). She is a writer, lecturer and consultant in art management. She was the director of CAHF, Contemporary Art Heritage Flanders, and co-curated ‘Somewhere in Between. Contemporary Art Scenes in Europe’, ‘Imagine Europe, In Search of New Narratives’ and the symposium Variations on Vulnerability, all at Bozar, Brussels.

Behind Marcel Duchamp’s legacy

Jeanne Brun

Kendell Geers

Kathleen Weyts

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Behind Marcel Duchamp’s legacy

Jeanne Brun

Kendell Geers

Kathleen Weyts

Become a member

Reach us

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