ABOUT

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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