LAb[au], laboratory for art and urbanism
From Sense (aesthesis) to Sense (semiosis)
www.lab-au.com
LAb[au] investigates colour, time, language and possibility as fundamental structures of perception and experience. Operating at the intersection of conceptual art and architecture, the collective formulates a linguistic approach that brings concepts from information and communication theory into the field of art, conceiving it as a form of language.
Their work explores relationships between language and colour, randomness and probability, and the organisation of time through systems, protocols and processes. By combining and permuting these fundamental research fields, LAb[au] develops distinct bodies of work such as Zeitfarbe (colour-time), colour language, Sprachmonochrome (language monochromes), histoires chromatiques, or possible time...
Through these shifts and recombinations, new layers of association and interpretation emerge. This principle is already present in the collective’s name: [labo]—laboratory and [bau]—construction. Between written form (code) and phonetics (perception), their practice operates through displacement, overlap and transformation of meaning, generating new fields of understanding across research, production and theory.
Founded in Brussels in 1997 by Manuel Abendroth and Jérôme Decock, LAb[au] has developed over more than twenty-five years a transdisciplinary and collaborative practice, producing artworks, large-scale installations and public art.
Conceiving art as a form of visual philosophy, LAb[au] employs contemporary technologies and materials, situating them within a broader art-historical perspective that connects past and present modes of thinking and making.
LAb[au] has exhibited internationally in major museums and institutions, including the Louvre, MoMA, ZKM, MAAT, Casino Luxembourg and the Venice Biennale. They have realised numerous public artworks worldwide, and their work is held in public and private collections.
LAb[au] is represented by:
DAN Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach, Brussels, Belgium
Solo Exhibitions, Selection (complete list here)
2025: Para além da biblioteca, Biblioteca Brasiliana, São Paulo, Brazil
2024: painting, writing, calculating, transcoding, DAN Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
2024: POSSIBLES | PROBABLES, Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
2022: Zeit Zeichen, Zeichen Zeit, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Heidenheim, Germany
2019: If Then Else, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
2016: Langage codé, La Patinoire Royale / Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels, Belgium
2015: rouge, vert, bleu, blanc, Centre des arts d’Enghien-les-Bains, Enghien-les-Bains, France
2014: zéro / un, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2014: writing, drawing, painting, DAM Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2014: binary waves, Le Centquatre, Paris, France
2011: Tessel, Musée de Moulage, Lyon, France
2011: framework f5x5x3, Aubette, Strasbourg, France
2010: m0t1v, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne, Germany
Group Exhibitions, Selection (complete list here)
See also exhibitions organised within festival contexts.
2025: Col Tempo, Galerie Bigaignon at Rhinocerus Gallery, Rome, Italy
2025: Remarks on Colours, KBK Art Space, Brussels, Belgium
2024: Langages et Imaginaires, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, France
2023: The Seduction of the Bureaucrat, De Garage, Mechelen, Belgium
2022: AXIOM #1, TOPO?, Brussels, Belgium
2022: On the Lookout, Fondation CAB, Brussels, Belgium
2021: Order of Operations, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
2021: X, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France
2021: Mika Vainio Retrospective, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
2020: Transcoding, Société, Brussels, Belgium
2019: Imaging Cities, SongEun Art Space, Seoul, South Korea
2019: D’un soleil à l’autre, Base Sous-marine, Bordeaux, France
2018: Action <> Reaction, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2018: A Brave New World, MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal
2018: Untitled (monochrome), Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York, USA
2018: TIME, Bastide Projets, Marseille, France
2017: Artists & Robots, Grand Palais World Exhibition, Astana, Kazakhstan
2017: Eutopia, Museum M, Leuven, Belgium
2016: Terminal P, La Panacée, Montpellier, France
2016: ACT, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea
2016: Digital Abstraction, Haus der elektronischen Künste, Basel, Switzerland
2015: Prosopopées, Le Centquatre, Paris, France
2015: Fold/Unfold, Kikk Festival, Galerie Du Beffroi, Namur, Belgium
2015: Exo-Evolution, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
2015: Noir et Blanc, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2014: Physicality, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal, Canada
2014: Artist/Novelist, MoMA, New York, USA
2013: Poème Numérique, Atomium, Brussels, Belgium
2013: Noise, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2012: Artificial Garden, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2012: Space Oddity, Le Grand Hornu Image, Boussu, Belgium
2010: West Arch, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany
2010: From Kinetic to Digital Art, Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France
2009: Young Belgian Painters Award, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
2009: Holy Fire, iMAL, Brussels, Belgium
2008: Emoção Artificial, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
2007: Architecture of the Night, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2006: Neo Beginners, Witte de With, Tent Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2003: Urban Lab, Bauhaus Dessau, Dessau, Germany
2003: Polygon Den[c]ity, New Museum, New York, USA
2002: Les Cinémas du futur, Le Pass, Mons, Belgium
2000: La Beauté, Clos des Trams, Avignon, France
2000: TransArchitectures 02/03, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Public Artworks, Selection (complete list)
2028: Source of Uncertainty, Podiumkunstengebouw, Leuven, Belgium
2026: listen to the Universe, RTT Building, Kortrijk, Belgium
2026: fLux, Union Station, Toronto, Canada
2024: XXXXXXXX, Stadtbibliothek Heidenheim, Germany
2019: Zäit Wuert, Casino Luxembourg, Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
2019: Palimpsest, Wijkpark De Porre, Ghent, Belgium
2016: 365, Quai 10 and La Vigie, Charleroi, Belgium
2016: Lux Aeternae, AZF Memorial, Toulouse, France
Permanent and Accessible Artworks in Private and Corporate Collections, Selection
2025: What colours tell us about …?, Collection Cloudseven, Brussels, Belgium
2021: yes, no: perhaps, Hager Stiftung, Blieskastell, Germany
2017: origamiSquare 59 squares, Linklaters, Madrid, Spain
2017: origamiCeiling 160 Rhombi, Reynaerts, Duffel, Belgium
2017: origamiCeiling 20 squares 54 kites, Collection Cosnova, Frankfurt, Germany
2017: origamiPenrose 71 kites and darts, Collection Aegon, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
2016: origamiSquare 192 squares, Linklaters, Brussels, Belgium
2016: SwarmDots, Collection Fidelity, Luxembourg
2015: chronoPrints, Collection Zebrastraat, Ghent, Belgium
Additional works are held in private collections worldwide.
Artworks in Institutions, Selection
2024: tonerchromeS, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, Montpellier, France
2021: PI, Cryptology Museum, Moscow, Russia
2018: 2 × 540 kHz, Mika Vainio + LAb[au], Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
2016: EOD02, Frederik De Wilde + LAb[au], ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
2006: pixFlow02, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
Monographs and Exhibition Catalogues, Selection (complete list of publications here)
2024: POSSIBLES | PROBABLES, exhibition catalogue, Botanique and Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach
2019: If Then Else, exhibition catalogue, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
2016: Calculations, Permutations, Notations, exhibition catalogue, The Major Gallery, London, UK
2015: Concepts, Modes, Systems, exhibition catalogue, Centre des arts Enghien-les-Bains, France – ISBN 978-2-916639-38-3
2010: MetaDesign, Monograph, Les Presses du réel, Dijon, France, 2010 – ISBN 978-2-84066-404-8
2010: m0t1f, exhibition catalogue, Solo Show at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne, Germany
Festivals (complete list here)
Selected festivals include:
Ososphere (Strasbourg), CTM (Berlin), TodaysArt (The Hague), Scopitone (Nantes), Luminato (Toronto), Nemo (Paris), Kikk (Namur), Elektra (Montréal), Sónar (Barcelona), among many others …
Art Fairs (complete list here)
Selected art fairs include:
Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, SP-Arte, ARCO, Art Brussels, BRAFA, FIAC, Art Vienna, Offscreen…
2023: Solo Booth with Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach (Brussels) at Offscreen, Grand Garage Haussmann, Paris, France
2016: Solo Booth with Galerie Denise René (Paris) at Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.