The Seventies in SoHo was a time when artists helped and supported one another. They could always be counted on to donate time and or work to help another artist in need. I called several friends and asked them if they would donate artworks to help me save Gordon's work. Naturally, they were very supportive and encouraged me to call more. At that time, I had an organization called the Foundation of Art Performances and Projects which assisted non-object artists in organizing tours, projects and installations mostly throughout Europe. Because my Foundation was unique, I was able to attract people I felt were the finest in their field. With only one or two exceptions, thirty-five artists said they would gladly donate a work to save the building. Armed with promises totalling approximately flfty artworks, I wrote Flor Bex with our proposal: these works would be donated to Belgium if Gordon's building could be saved.

Flor Bex was sponsoring one of the most innovative contemporary art program in all of Europe at that time. Office Baroque had been a very difficult project to complete but Flor managed to convince the conservative city elders of its merit and cleared the way for Gordon to make his cuts. He realized this would be another bureaucratic nightmare but knew how important the work was. Flor also realized that Belgium could use another contemporary museum and thought that it might be possible to buy the building next door to Gordon's Office Baroque to house the art collection. From January to May of I 979, I flew back and forth to Antwerp to meet potential sponsors Flor had found. There was a small documentary exhibition (Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussel) to explain what the Foundation was trying to do, showing some black-and white photographs of works by Gordon and by artists who had donated works to the Foundation. Meanwhile, offer of donation were rolling in, both to me and to Flor Bex. Artists Gordon had met only briefly and many neither of us had met at all offered to donate works if Gordon's building were saved. Eventually we had promises of several million dollars worth of art from 350 artists from 17 countries.

Throughout 1979 and 1980, Flor and his friends and Gordon's supporters argued with the Belgian government over the need for a new museum and the unique opportunity being presented. Flor raised the money demanded by the building's owner to purchase the building only to be told, no, now he wanted more money. Finally, in the summer of 1980, Flor again offered the owner the building's purchase price only to be turned down. Two weeks later, the owner tore down the building. Flor was out of town when that happened. He returned to Antwerp to find Office Baroque had been demolished and the owner had declared bankruptcy.

I felt I did not have the right now to ask the artists to donate their works but many felt they still wanted to create a collection to create a new contemporary art museum in Antwerp."

Jane Crawford. Abstract from a letter sent to the IVAM (Valencia) October 1992.


In 1973, Florent Bex opened a video department at the Internationaal Cultureel Centrum (ICC) of Antwerp (Belgium), which then becomes the main center for video production and distribution in Belgium (and Europe).