The retrospective “Dudoute_Toaster_Absolu (AMVK 1981–2025)” exemplifies this approach, originating from AMVK’s desire to revisit and recontextualize her earlier works. At its heart lies the video “A-X+B=12”, a digital animation that brings to life a series of her drawings, collages, and installations from 1981 onward. This “coming of age” piece traces the journey of an entity entering the world and becoming an artist, mirroring AMVK’s own trajectory. To create the animation, she methodically selected works to form a theory, contrasting this process with a multi-dimensional selection of music and sounds. The result is an amalgam of intentional, slowly diffusing imagery and a fluid soundtrack, embodying some of the forces that define her practice.

Revisiting “A-X+B=12” inspired the structure of the retrospective. AMVK reviewed the animation’s components, carefully selecting key works for the show. She then created new works between 2023 and 2025, directly informed by these earlier pieces, establishing a dialogue between past and present. Her approach underscores her belief in the cyclical nature of time, where fragments of the past recur and resonate with new meaning in the present. AMVK draws parallels between her process and Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence—a looping repetition of themes, materials, and ideas that resists linearity and transforms perpetually into new variations.

For much of her career, AMVK worked exclusively in series, reflecting her deep commitment to exploring the interconnectedness of things. In recent years, her creations have evolved into standalone works that often echo earlier pieces, revealing her ongoing exploration of rediscovery, reinterpretation, and subversion of meaning. This retrospective unfolds as a nonlinear narrative, where fragments of the past and present merge according to a logic known only to the artist. The result is an evocative and immersive experience for viewers, offering insight into the artist’s unique worldview.

In “Dudoute_Toaster_Absolu (AMVK 1981–2025)”, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s life and career come to a “full circle” moment. The exhibition reflects her belief that she herself has become the structure that guides her creative process—a dynamic interplay of past, present, and future that invites audiences to witness the eternal recurrence of her life and work.

Text by: Susana Turbay Botero