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Kris Burm attended the Sint-Lukas Academy of Art in Brussels. In his twenties he worked as a freelance graphic designer, copywriter and illustrator before launching a career as a game designer in 1985. For over 30 years now—20 of which as a professional—Burm has focused almost solely on the development of abstract strategy games for two players. His pure and exceptional creations have given him a cult reputation within the game scene. The many obstacles he has encountered as an advocate of abstract games have resulted in the creation of a triptych, which Burm has titled “The Right Move”: the central panel is the list of abstract games he designed, the left hand panel is a manifesto he wrote on abstract strategy games as an art form (at the present only available in Dutch), and the right hand panel is the ongoing process of the making of mixed media artworks based on and inspired by his games. The release of the manifesto and a first solo exhibition took place in the Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke, Belgium, in 2014.
Burm’s motto is what the notorious dadaist Marcel Duchamp once claimed: “Chess has all the beauty of art—and much more!” This goes, says Burm, for each solid abstract strategy game for two players.
PARTICULARITIES
- 1957
- Born in Antwerp, Belgium
- 1966
- First cigarette
- 1975
- First mustache
- 1983
- First Expo (Brussels)
- 1987
- First mountaineering experience
- 1991
- First published game: INVERS
- 1995
- Conception of project GIPF
- 1996
- First company: Don & Co
- 1997
- First game of project GIPF: GIPF
- 1998
- First transfer of project GIPF: Schmidt Spiele (D)
- 2002
- Last cigarette, first marathon
- 2003
- First kid: Max
- 2005
- Second kid: Lou
- Finalization of project GIPF: PÜNCT
- 2006
- Second transfer of project GIPF: SMART (B)
- 2007
- First rearrangement of project GIPF: TAMSK out, TZAAR in
- 2008
- First cigar
- 2013
- Conception of triptych THE RIGHT MOVE
- 2014
- First expo Abstract Games as Art: The Verbeke Foundation (B)
- Manifesto on abstract game: The Right Move (only in Dutch)
- 2015
- Third transfer of project GIPF: Huch & Friends (D)
- 2017
- Synthesis of project GIPF: LYNGK
- 20...
- Still living in Antwerp, Belgium