A few days ago i was in Ghent to visit the biennale Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space, a joint production by Vooruit and the S.M.A.K. museum. Before i come back with a report on the biennale, i’d like to share a few images from one of the exhibitions open until mid June at S.M.A.K.

Ed Templeton S.M.A.K. photo by Dirk Pauwels

Now i’m sure that for most of you Ed Templeton is quite the superstar, but i must confess that i had never seen his work before. The mid-career retrospective, titled The Cemetery of Reason, bombards visitors with some of the images, photos, drawings, paintings, videos and sculptures that the artist slash pro skateboarder has created over the last fifteen years.

Templeton mainly documents his own life and that of the people around him. He portrays himself and his wife Deanna, friends, family and the many people he meets on his skateboard tours. The boys and girls who hang around near a skate park, the boredom of touring, the bloody falls, the late-night parties and the intimate encounters with his wife in anonymous hotel rooms… Being on the road also inspires Templeton into traditional street photography.

Brian, Dortmund 1999, C-print photograph

Ed Templeton S.M.A.K. photo by Dirk Pauwels

Ed Templeton, The Zealot, 2008 (Tim Van Laere gallery)

Ed Templeton – The Cemetery of Reason is on view until June, 13, 2010 at S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium.

P.s. Thanks a thousands time to the charming man at the entrance who let me in and didn’t make a fuss because i don’t have a press card. It’s not every day that art bloggers feel welcome in cultural institutions.