Louise de Bethune
Louise de Bethune is a Belgian scholar with a background in law. Whereas the law is always intertwined with other domains, she is interested in this connection between law and the artworld. More specifically in the role of copyright law in artistic practices and vice-versa.
She specialised in Intellectual property law and copyright law at KULeuven as well as at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg (Germany 2020). During her postgraduate at KULeuven (2022) she explored pathways to build bridges between the law and artistic practices, in particular she sought to connect the copyright framework and the legal definition of authorship with conceptual collaborative and intangible practices. Her ongoing research on collaborative artistic practices asks how the interpretation of the law can enable and incentivise (new forms and ways of) creation. Placing the collective and collaborative element at the centre stage, she is interested in the social realities of the often static legal terminology.
Her work as a legal advisor in governmental context, currently working for the Flemish Government (Digitaal Vlaanderen) and previously in the European Parliament (2021), has fuelled her multi-dimensional approach to the law. Law and art both being intrinsically human creations with an important role in society, she aims to understand the similarities between them. Following the life of a law from the very start makes it possible to situate it in the social dimension and intention from where it arose until its effects on practice. By simultaneously looking into the two sides of the law Louise seeks to bridge this gap between two social realities, between the law as sculpted by the government and politicians, and the practical outcome lived by many, including artists.
