Arts Flanders Visual Arts

Young Belgian Art Prize 2013

vti — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:20:50 +0000

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The Young Belgian Art Prize 2013 will be awarded on 26th June at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

YOUNG - For artists under the age of 35.
BELGIAN - The participants are Belgian or have been living in Belgium for at least a year when they make their submission.
ART - All disciplines of contemporary art are accepted.
PRIZE - The finalists compete for five prizes.

Since 1950, the Jeune Peinture Belge/Jonge Belgische Schilderkunst has organised the biennial Young Belgian Painters Award with a view to supporting young artistic talent in Belgium and offering it a platform. The first competition for contemporary art in Belgium, it has achieved a historic status over the last 60 years and has launched the careers of many Belgian artists. Participants and laureates have included renowned artists such as Orla Barry, Hans Op de Beeck, Pierre Alechinsky, Ann Veronica Janssens, Raoul De Keyser, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Berlinde De Bruyckere and Pieter Vermeersch.

The finalists of the Young Belgian Art Prize 2013:
Félicia Atkinson, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, Céline Butaye, Shelly Nadashi, Fabrice Pichat, Jasper Rigole, Helmut Stallaerts, Adrien Tirtiaux, and Philippe Van Wolputte.

Five prizes will be awarded:

Gillion-Crowet Prize (€ 25,000): presented by the Chairman, Baron Gillion Crowet
Emile and Stephy Languy Prize (€ 12,500)
BOZAR Prize (€ 12,500)
ING Prize (€ 12,500)
The Public Prize ( € 6,250)

Practical details:
Public opening and awards ceremony: 26 June 2013 – 6.45 pm
Closing event (finissage) and presentation of the Public Prize: 15 September 2013 – 5 pm
Exhibition: 27 June > 15 September 2013
Venue: BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts, rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels

More information: www.youngbelgianartprize.be

Visual Arts

Joëlle Tuerlinckx in Haus Der Kunst in Munich

bam — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:33:31 +0000

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The artistic vocabulary of Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx cites the conventions of how archive material is usually presented, by combining drawings and found objects, paper, display cases, newspapers, photography collage, and sculptural arrangements.

A central question around which these arrangements revolve, is: What is left of the twentieth century and what conventions are we using to present our knowledge? This question stretches out and asks about the consistency of time: Isn't time much more elastic than it is linear? Are we able to perceive temporal layers simultaneously, both past and present? What do we comprehend as the real world or the parallel world? What do we see as original and what as imitation? And are there things that slip our mind and escape our perception? For her first major appearance in a German institution, Tuerlinckx reactivates her early works, adds elements to them, and creates new arrangements.

Joëlle Tuerlinckx was born in Brussels in 1958, where she still lives. Her work has been presented internationally, including, to cite the most recent, at the Reina Sofia, Palacio de Cristal, Madrid (2009), MAMCO, Geneva (2007), The Drawing Center, New York (2006), The Power Plant, Toronto (2005), Ausstellungshalle Münster (2005), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2003), South London Gallery (2002), Documenta 11, Kassel (2002), Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2001), Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (1999) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (1994). She is represented by the Galerie Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder in Vienna and the Galerie Christian Nagel in Cologne & Berlin.

More information: www.hausderkunst.de

Visual Arts

Belgian artists at the 55th Venice Biennale

bam — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

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In addition to Berlinde De Bruyckere's show at the Belgian Pavilion, five other Belgian artists have been invited to participate in the main exhibition - The Encyclopedic Palace - in the Giardini-Arsenale: Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Thierry De Cordier and Norbert Ghisoland. But that's not all: no less than 25 Belgian artists have been invited to exhibit at various venues around Venice. Check out the official website of the Belgian Pavilion: www.belgianpavilion.be

Visual Arts

Koen Van Mechelen receives the Nica Award

bam — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:18:33 +0000

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Koen Vanmechelen has received the 'Golden Nica' award in the 'Hybrid Art' category for his pioneering work on the edges of art, science, technology and research. There were 568 other candidates for this category. Previous winners of the award include such renowned artists as Joe Davis (US), Stelarc (AU) and Eduardo Kac (US). Pixar, Wikipedia and Wikileaks once received a Golden Nica too.

Since 1987, the Austrian organisation Ars Electronica (Linz) has awarded the Prix Ars Electronica once a year. This is a very prestigious prize for digital, electronic and interactive arts. This year there were no less than 4071 participants from 73 countries, divided into 7 categories. Apart from Vanmechelen in the Hybrid Art category, artists from Switzerland, Canada, Spain, Brazil, the US, Israel and Austria received awards in the categories ‘Digital Musics & Sound Art’, ‘Computer Animation/Film/VFX’, ‘Interactive Art’, ‘u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD’, ‘Digital Communities’ and the 'Art and Technology Grant’.

The members of the jury were Andrea Grover (US), Arthur I. Miller (UK), Jens Hauser (DE/FR), Jurij Krpan (SI) and Karin Ohlenschläger (DE/ES) and they chose the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project for specific reasons: "In this project Vanmechelen researches universal themes like biocultural diversity and identity in a multidisciplinary manner. Starting from a chicken, he forges arts, science and technology into very unique and wilful works of art."

'The Cosmoploitan Chicken Project' will be presented at the Ars Electronica Gala during the festival in Linz on 6 September 2013. The Golden Nica brings a cash prize of 10,000 euros. The artist takes part in the Prix Ars Electronica Forum, from 5 until 9 september, where his work will be presented to the international public. His works are now being exhibited in Washington and will soon be on show in Amsterdam, Venice and Wageningen.

More information:
www.aec.at/prix/
www.koenvanmechelen.be

Visual Arts

Francis Alÿs, Michael Borremans and Panamarenko at Marta Herford

bam — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:32:50 +0000

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For the first time an exhibition is dedicated extensively to the phenomenon of the vision in contemporary art. In what way does it differ from a utopia, what energies does it hold for the active shaping of the future?

Inspired by the first apparition of the Virgin Mary north of the Alps, the Herford apparition in the 10th century, “Visions” embarks on an unconventional, highly stimulating journey through a wide range of contexts and phenomena, allowing the viewer to trace the spirit and the atmosphere of visionary thought and formation. In our pragmatically organised times the question of the power of visions is just as necessary as it is – in the form of this exhibition – unique. In keeping with the intangible nature of a vision, this exhibition is conceived as a kind of living membrane, an experiential space within Frank Gehry's biomorphous, open architecture, thus giving expression to the character of the Museum Marta Herford as a laboratory for progressive ideas.

Works by Francis Alÿs, Matthew Barney, Michael Borremans, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Slominsky and many others show very different facets of a phenomenon whose topicality has become patently obvious. There will also be a reunion with Panamarenko’s “Papaver” airship (2002) from the Marta collection.

Visions: An Atmosphere of Change
Marta Herford, Germany
25 May - 8 September 2013

More information: http://marta-herford.de/

Visual Arts

Koenraad Dedobbeleer in De Vleeshal Middelburg

bam — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:29:32 +0000

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Koenraad Dedobbeleer (°1975, Brussels) presents his first Dutch solo show, with new work at De Vleeshal.

A large framework of steel tubes supports the exhibition. Its design is based on a drawing by Sol LeWitt. Walls have been placed within this framework to create spaces in which works can be exhibited.

Dedobbeleer’s sculptures typically have a surreal twist. This Belgian artist’s work deepens our insight into the multiple layers of objects and their external properties. What makes something a sculpture? A material object can be seen as a sculpture in its own right and, simultaneously, as the basis for another sculpture.

An artist liberates everyday objects from their usual functions, changing their significance by placing them in new contexts. Koenraad Dedobbeleer misleads his viewers; the individual elements of the objects he creates look familiar, but the object as a whole is often disturbing. The artist transforms functional objects through the location-dependent placement and use of photographs, projections, film and writing. Objects become elements of a larger whole, fusing into a diverse range of spaces whose elements influence each other on various levels.

Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti

Koenraad Dedobbeleer: You Export Reality to Where It Is You Get Your Money From
De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands
27 April - 23 June 2013

More information: http://vleeshal.nl

Visual Arts

Charif Benhelima at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói in Rio de Janeiro

bam — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:06:08 +0000

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Initiated by the Palais de Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the exhibition 'Charif Benhelima: Polaroids 1998-2012' is being shown at the MAC-Niterói. This panoramic exhibition brings together 100 Polaroid pictures and offers the public the opportunity to access the heart of Benhelima’s artistic process.

Since the end of Welcome to Belgium (1990–1999) – a project that addressed the feeling of not belonging, made in 35mm black and white film – Charif Benhelima (Brussels, 1967) has photographed almost exclusively on Polaroid film. The adoption of this self-developing photography, widely expected to be just a fleeting fad, marked a new phase in the artist’s creative process, drawing on the establishment of a new relationship with the act of photography – a much slower process with hardly any technical control, the result of which is unique and immune to retouching. As if in a countercurrent to the abundance of digital images, Benhelima develops a new aesthetic, conceptual and at times methodological investigation in each series, with this “instant” media that enjoyed the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. His studies establish relations with specific Polaroid features and make use of the technical limitations of the adopted amateur model, the Polaroid 600 (film and camera), giving shape to a complex and consequent work.

One of Belgium’s leading exponents of contemporary art in photography, Benhelima reasserts his art as a representational object open to reflexive criticism. Whether by applying the documentary approach of so-called “street photography” to the Polaroid 600, or by focusing on an archivist perspective through appropriating and reusing existing pictures, the artist places the photographic sign itself at the heart of his work. Notions like truth, document and also identity, origin, time, space, memory/oblivion and obliteration are central to his work, reflecting a family history containing many blank spaces.

The son of a Moroccan father and Belgian mother, the artist was orphaned at the age of eight. He grew up in the countryside of the Catholic West Flanders and learned about his Sephardic Jewish origin when already an adult. The process of developing his own identity in the face of the contradictions, conflicts and intolerance triggered by cultural diversity forms the basis of his photographic research. Although deeply autobiographical, Benhelima’s work goes beyond questions of a personal nature. On the contrary, it is shaped by and forms a sociopolitical discourse of a universal dimension, especially associated to the issues of immigration and discrimination, as well as by the image - both photographic and social - as a construction. The notion of visual and/or symbolic invisibility explored in the various series is therefore fundamental.

Largely composed as a sort of figurative abstraction, Benhelima’s Polaroids are imbued with ambiguity. The perception of time, space, the real and simulacrum is destabilised, and the observer’s subjectivity when faced with the images and the questions they raise assumes its constructive role before every representation.

Initiated by the Palais de Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, the exhibition 'Charif Benhelima: Polaroids 1998-2012' is being shown at the MAC-Niterói, bringing a selection of over 100 Polaroid pictures, split into four series: Harlem on my Mind - I was, I am (1999-2002), Semites (2003-2005), Black-Out (2005- ) and Roots (2008- ). The exhibition also features three large-scale works, products of this research. Like an intimate visit to the artist’s studio, this panoramic exhibition offers the public the opportunity to access the heart of Benhelima’s artistic process, which paradoxically can be seen as a work of art in itself.

Curators: Daniella Géo and Christophe De Jaeger

MAC - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
6 April - 23 June 2013

More info: www.macniteroi.com.br

Visual Arts

Fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck at Dallas Contemporary

bam — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:33:53 +0000

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Dallas Contemporary announces an upcoming exhibition by the avant-garde fashion designer and influential trendsetter Walter Van Beirendonck. In his exhibition, Van Beirenconck will encourage us to re-examine privacy and explore what happens behind closed doors. His Spring 2013 collection explores these themes through the lens of freemasonry, made evident in the use of subtle design elements and period pieces. Curated by Dallas Contemporary’s Director, Peter Doroshenko, the exhibition will feature one-off pieces on a series of motorized pedestals. The rotating pedestals will allow audience members to experience the garments from all angles.

The avant-garde fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck is one of the most renowned trendsetters in men’s fashion. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Van Beirendonck joined the revolutionary Antwerp Six, a collective of influential fashion designers, in 1987. By 1999, he had been designated as a Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. His solo exhibitions have received national and international acclaim, including his recent Dream the World Awake retrospective at MoMu Antwerp. His work transcends the bounds of institutions, however. His pieces are regularly shown in Vogue, V, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire in France, Italy, Russia and the United States, and they adorn the bodies of male fashion gurus across the globe.

In addition to designing for his own label, Walter Van Beirendonck is the artistic director of Scapa Sports and designs a children’s collection called ZULUPAPUWA for JBC. He has also designed costumes for theatre, ballet and film, and contributed to commercial and image-making projects for Coca Cola, Mustang, Eastpak, Nissan and U2. Van Beirendonck continues to collaborate with other artists, including photographers Juergen Teller and Jean-Baptiste Mondino, sculptor Folkert de Jong and performance artist Orlan.

Van Beirendonck is known for his strong graphics, innovative cuts, and unexpected colour combinations. Each collection combines his fascination for pop music, comics, science fiction and cultural traditions, and incorporates non-traditional fabrics and materials, including synthetic fibres, plastics and rubber. Walter Van Beirendonck’s exhibition at Dallas Contemporary will run from 12 April to 19 August 2013.

More information: www.dallascontemporary.org

Visual Arts

S.P.A.M. OFFICE with Pieterjan Ginckels in ANDOR London

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:59:43 +0000

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S.P.A.M. OFFICE appears to be a traditional modernist office setting; uniform office furniture has been made from cheap, low quality materials. S.P.A.M. Officers check e-mails, detect spam, print and file content in the S.P.A.M. Archive, poetically supporting the decorum of bureaucracy. They wear the uniform and logo of the 'firm', and monotonously disarm the spam to which the office is subjected.

S.P.A.M. Officers become performers but also work for the artist. The officers' selections and archiving of spam messages enables Pieterjan Ginckels to reproduce the content and context of spam in his artworks. The exhibition's audience is invited to forward all their spam email to s-p-a-m@live.com, as well as to come and watch the office at work.

Born in 1982 Pieterjan Ginckels lives and works in Brussels. He received the Center for Fine Arts Award at the 2011 Young Belgian Painters Award and has recently delivered solo projects in Aachen, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Cologne, Heerlen and Oostende. Ginckels first designed his characteristic 'families' of artworks in '1000 Beats' (first built in 2008) and 'PISTE' (2010): installations with pronounced circular, multi-layered and cooperative aspects that generate metaphors in sound and image. He is represented in Amsterdam by Galerie de Expeditie where his solo exhibition runs until the 22nd of February, coinciding with Art Rotterdam where he has been selected as the Artist in Focus 2013.

S.P.A.M. OFFICE
19 January - 9 March 2013

More information: www.creativeandorcultural.com, www.pieterjanginckels.be

Visual Arts

Nel Aerts in Frankendael Foundation Amsterdam

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:57:28 +0000

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Nel Aerts (°1987) is a child of her time. She skillfully manoeuvers among all conceivable media, which she uses intuitively to question the world and her position therein as a young artist. She combines her fantasy, her environment and the art scene into a whole that is simultaneously poetic and playful, absurd and grotesque.

Nel Aerts, De Averechtse Val van Huize Frankendael
19 January - 28 April 2013

More information: www.frankendaelfoundation.nl, www.nelaerts.com

Visual Arts

Kendell Geers 1988-2012 in Haus der Kunst Munich

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:54:30 +0000

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Kendell Geers (°1968, South Africa, lives and works in Brussels) uses various media such as installation, drawing, video, performance, and photography. He gained international recognition through his participation in Documenta 11 (2002) and his active global exhibition activity.

His life and work can be divided into two decade-long periods whose trajectories and developments are explored in this exhibition. The first political phase runs from 1988 to 2000, during which time the artist, a white South African, explored the moral and ethical contradictions of the apartheid system through his practice. Geers developed a visual vocabulary characterized by provocation as well as humor by using found objects such as barbed wire or glass shards. By appropriating historical events and ideas, he focused on questions of relationship between individual and society. It was in this context that Geers changed his date of birth to May 1968, the start of the student and civil revolution, and joined every political party in the period before South Africa's first democratic elections, from the extreme right-wing to the Communist party. In this way, he expressed his doubts about the fetishization of party politics.

Initiated by his move to Brussels in 2000, his later European period is now characterized by a more poetic aesthetic. Here, Geers transferred his incendiary practice into a postcolonial and increasingly global context, suggesting more universal themes like terrorism, spirituality, and mortality. As such, the artist's life and work can be said to constitute a living archive comprised of political events, photographs, letters, and literary texts that serve as a source of inspiration and represent a continuation of his oeuvre.

Kendell Geers 1988-2012
1 February - 12 May 2013

More information: www.hausderkunst.de, http://kendellgeers.com

Visual Arts

Koenraad Dedobbeleer at Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac in France

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:52:59 +0000

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Workmanship of Certainty is the second in a trilogy of shows that began in St. Gallen and will end in Middelburg, The Netherlands, in April 2013. While the selection of works and their arrangement is specific to each venue, the project is in fact a global one whose common starting point is the artist's book Œuvre sculpté, travaux pour amateurs (Roma Publications, 2012). A kind of nonchronological visual version of a word-chain game, this publication brings together images of artworks, furniture and architectural elements to form a sort of repertoire of historical references, a manual of practices and uses for day-to-day objects, which serve as keys for reading these three shows.

The turn of phrase Workmanship of Certainty seems to draw an analogy between manual skill, which is necessary to achieve form, and knowledge. As the artist points out in an inscription on an earlier work, "Reflection is a manual activity and a concrete labour"; in other words, the production process is a mechanism of culture.

While reworking in a tragicomic vein the great concerns of modernism (the drive to unite functionality and esthetics), Koenraad Dedobbeleer's works also display a materialist, antiheroic rereading of minimalist and conceptual sculpture. Rejecting any exclusive, unequivocal interpretation, the artist's vocabulary, formal above all, examines the connections between an object, its aspect and its use, and in doing so scrutinizes the links between public, private and exhibition spaces.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer (°1975, lives and works in Brussels) produces sculptures, installations, photographs and publications, and has regularly shown internationally since the late 1990s. Winner of the Mies van der Rohe Prize in 2009, he is also an exhibition curator and co-editor of the fanzine UP. His many solo shows in art centers include the Fundação Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisbon (2010); the Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (2009); the Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, the Kunsthalle Bern (with Rita McBride, 2008) and the Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2007). The artist is represented by Galerie Micheline Szwajcer (Antwerp), ProjecteSD (Barcelona), Reception (Berlin), Mai 36 Galerie (Zürich) and Georg Kargl Fine Arts (Vienna).

Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Workmanship of Certainty
18 January - 31 March 2013

More information: www.credac.fr

Visual Arts

Rinus Van de Velde at CAC Málaga in Spain

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:50:50 +0000

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The Contemporary Art Center of Málaga is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Rinus Van de Velde in Spain. The exhibition, curated by Fernando French, is a selection of unpublished works showing the artist himself as main protagonist. In total, twelve drawings are depicting scenes that may be real or invented. The paintings are completed with texts that are reflections on creativity, art or references to the artist's autobiography.

Rinus Van de Velde (°1984) lives and works in Antwerp and is considered one of the most promising Belgian artists. He studied sculpture at Sint-Lukas in Antwerp between 2002 and 2006 and did a postgraduate at HISK between 2009 and 2011. Among the most important solo exhibitions are the S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2008), the Institute of Zeitgenössische Kunst Nuremberg in 2010. In 2011 he exhibited at the New York Artisanal House in Chicago Moniquemeloche Gallery, Galerie Zink Berlin and Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp. In the last year we have seen his work at Patrick Painter Inc. in Los Angeles, USA. States, at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam Schiedam in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam tegenboschvanvreden. His work is part of group exhibitions in galleries and art centers in Brussels, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London or Tokyo.

From 1st February to 31 March 2013

More information: http://cacmalaga.org/, http://rinusvandevelde.com/

Visual Arts

J.M. Coetzee curator for the Belgian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:43:26 +0000

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Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee has been tipped to curate the Belgian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale where Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere will stage a solo exhibition. According to reports, it was she who requested Coetzee as a curator. De Bruyckere's sculptures traditionally feature wounded animals and humans, and it was Coetzee's devout stance on animal rights that inspired her decision. "[The curator is] somebody you have to be able to talk to about your work, who you can show what you are doing and get a response," De Bruyckere said on a local radio show. "I thought, 'Why shouldn't I ask him to be the curator?' and he agreed."

The two recently collaborated on a book entitled Allen Vlees ("All Flesh"). The book features photographs by De Bruyckere and quotes from Coetzee's novels, including Disgrace, which won the Booker Prize in 1999.

The Venice Biennale will take place from 1st June to 24th November 2013.

More information: www.labiennale.org

Visual Arts

Maarten Vanden Eynde at Hordaland Art Centre in Norway

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:38:45 +0000

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Maarten Vanden Eynde has been collecting plastic waste from five major ocean gyres since 2008. He has created Plastic Reef, a long-term project that is now being finalised for the exhibition at Hordaland Art Centre.

Just below the surface of world's oceans there is a floating layer of plastic debris, not detectable by overhead satellites, as it is translucent, but visible to the naked eye up close. This is only 30% of all the plastic that is dumped in the oceans, as the other 70% sinks to the bottom. Over the last five years the artist Maarten Vanden Eynde has travelled the world, accompanying oceanographers, to collect plastic waste from the five major ocean gyres: North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. From the floating debris the artist has created Plastic Reef; a long-term project that started in 2008 and which is being finalised for this exhibition at Hordaland Art Centre.

The sculpture has the characteristics of a coral reef, with all its nooks and crannies. However, more than hinting at what could be lost as a result of all the plastic in our oceans, it is a physical solution to the threat that plastic in the oceans poses to the marine environment. The importance of marine environments, as well as land environments, to living beings is frequently under-communicated. In light of this, we might see Plastic Reef as tangible proof of what scientists and ecologists are trying to make known through research and publication.

This work additionally gives us an opportunity to discuss topics closer to contemporary art. Plastic Reef is a futile attempt to create a natural phenomenon dictated by temperature, ocean depths and currents. Nevertheless, this recreation can be firmly rooted in discussions relating to aesthetics as well as issues of artistic processes. First exhibited at the size of a football at The Glendale College Art Gallery, Glendale, California in 2009, it has since been shown in several exhibitions in Belgium and The Netherlands, such as last summer at Manifesta 9 - The Deep of the Modern. Plastic Reef was finalised in Bergen for this exhibition, where debris from all the five gyres finally comes together to make the piece complete.

Maarten Vanden Eynde (1977) is an artist who has devoted his life to exploring the mysteries of our future past by investigating the concept of Genetology, a self-invented 'Science of First Things' (www.genetology.net). His work is situated exactly on the borderline between the past and the future; sometimes looking forward to the future of yesterday, sometimes looking back to the history of tomorrow. He studied Free Media at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His postgraduate studies have included a year at the Mountain School of Arts in Los Angeles, USA, and two years at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. In 2005 he founded the organisation Enough Room for Space, a mobile platform for site-specific projects, together with Marjolijn Dijkman.

Maarten Vanden Eynde, Plastic Reef
12 January - 10 March 2013

More information: www.kunstsenter.no, www.maartenvandeneynde.com

Visual Arts

Berlinde De Bruyckere at Kunsthaus Graz in Austria

bam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:32:43 +0000

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Kunsthaus Graz is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the Belgian representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

The Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (Ghent, 1964, lives in Ghent) is one of those contemporary female sculptors who explores inner and outer spaces, and in so doing plumbs the finality of the body as a perceptible counterpart. The creatures she creates, a combination of unusual elements in a state of metamorphosis, are hermaphrodite forms that evoke complex emotions and reflect images of an examination of suffering in terms of both humanism and art history.

This solo exhibition by the Belgian representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale, as a dialogue with the fluidity of the space at the Kunsthaus, concentrates on the topic of metamorphosis and shows both sculptures and watercolours from recent years. In this confrontation the show questions our knowledge of existence and finds an enduring sculptural language of empathy.

Curated by Katrin Bucher Trantow.

Berlinde De Bruyckere, In the Flesh
15 February - 12 May 2013

More information: www.museum-joanneum.at

Visual Arts

Jan Fabre's Art Is A Medusa in Barletta, Italy

bam — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:59:04 +0000

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Jan Fabre arrives in Barletta, Apulia, to be hosted in one of the most beautiful Italian museums: the Giuseppe De Nittis Gallery Museum - Palazzo della Marra. A gem of Baroque architecture devoted to 18th-century art, already home to the rich permanent collection of the De Nittis donation for several years.

Jan Fabre, with strong ties to Apulia - where he was first a guest in Trani, then in Monte Sant'Angelo for Intramoenia Extra Art - and winner of the Pino Pascali Prize in 2008, awarded to him by the foundation of that name in Polignano a Mare, has chosen yet again to occupy space devoted to ancient and modern art and to revive it through his art. Through the rooms dedicated to temporary exhibitions in the Palazzo della Marra, Jan Fabre will unfold a path shaped by the balanced alternation of early films he directed himself, cibachromes and blue ballpoint pen drawings, mostly done between 1986 and 1992 and borrowed from various collections.

"Art is a Medusa", the title of the exhibition, embodies the very essence of art and symbolises the insidious incursion that contemporary art will be making into the historical Palazzo della Marra.

Intramoenia Extra Art/Watershed
Jan Fabre, Art Is A Medusa
From 28 November 2012 to 28 February 2013
More information: http://www.intramoeniaextrart.it/watershed

Visual Arts

London exhibition with Nel Aerts, Filip Gillissen and Hedwig Houben

bam — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:30:11 +0000

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Kunstraum is a new project space in London focusing on exhibitions of artists based outside of the UK in London's neighbouring European cities. The artists in Definitional Disruptions are all based in Belgium and have a connection with the art scene in Brussels.

In his seminal sociological work, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman describes social interaction revolving around a gathering consensus on the definition of a given situation. Definitional disruptions are the moments, much feared by some or eagerly anticipated by others, which rock the whole boat and throw the nature of a social situation into doubt.

The works by Nel Aerts, Filip Gilissen and Hedwig Houben in Definitional Disruptions place interruptions into the established relationships between artists and their works, between the performer and the audience. Definitional Disruptions investigates the potential for the persona of the artist figure as a tool in bringing these dislocations about. Nel Aerts' Tribunesees the performer replaced by an effigy, which the artist – in her new role as manual worker – must drag around behind her. Filip Gilissen's The Only Way is Up ambiguously embraces the possible clichés of the artist as introverted genius, salesman or preacher. Hedwig Houben'sPersonal Matters and Matters Of Fact projects a moment of personal self-analysis, but it is not clear if we are meeting the real individual behind the work, or a characterised representation.

Nel Aerts, Filip Gilissen and Hedwig Houben, Definitional Disruptions
1 December 2012 - 26 January 2013
More information: kunstraum.org.uk

Visual Arts

Katerina Gregos appointed artistic director of Art Brussels

bam — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:36:43 +0000

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Art Brussels announced the appointment of Katerina Gregos as Artistic Director of the 31st fair to be held from 18 to 21 April 2013. She will succeed Karen Renders, who passed away on 10 October 2012 at the age of 54, having been the public persona and character of the fair for more than 15 years.

Gregos's position at Art Brussels is a new one. She will be developing a new artistic vision and all the artistic programming for the fair at a time of transition for the organization. It was Renders' wish to engage Gregos in the development of a new vision for Art Brussels, a fair located in a city that is becoming home to an increasing number of artists from all over the world as well as numerous new galleries. Gregos' plans include developing a more direct link between the fair and Europe's most upcoming art city, but will also re-focus Art Brussels' artistic programme within the fair itself, where she aims to concentrate activities and events, including a programme of live art. "At a time when, despite the economic crisis, art fairs continue to proliferate and competition is intense, it is extremely challenging to be able to work on developing a distinct artistic identity and positioning for Art Brussels, and a timely moment to think about the renewal of the fair, given both its strengthened position thanks to the long-term efforts of Karen Renders, and the increasing international interest in the city's art scene".

A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art and King's College (University of London) where she read Art History and European Literary and Historical Studies, as well as the City University London, where she obtained a second MA in Museum Management, the Greek-born, Brussels-based Gregos comes to Art Brussels with extensive international curatorial experience and a host of critically acclaimed exhibitions including, most recently, Newtopia: The State of Human Rights (Mechelen & Brussels), Speech Matters, the Danish Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, Manifesta 9 (Genk) and the 4. Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg, Germany (for the last two of which she was co-curator). Apart from her experience as an independent curator, Gregos also served as founding director and curator of the Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens (until 2002) and artistic director of Argos – Centre for Art & Media in Brussels (until 2007).

Apart from her engagement at Art Brussels, Gregos will continue to pursue her other curatorial projects. Among those forthcoming will be the next Gothenburg Biennial in Sweden, where she will curate one of the exhibitions, and an exhibition for Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria, co-curated with Luigi Fassi (both 2013).

More information: www.artbrussels.com

Visual Arts

Michaël Borremans wins the Flemish Prize for Visual Arts

bam — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:17:50 +0000

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Flemish Minister of Culture, Joke Schauvliege, awarded the 2011-12 Prize of the Flemish Community for Visual Arts to artist Michaël Borremans. The prize is the sum of 12,500 euros. The winner also receives a bronze sculpture entitled "La ultima isle" by Belgian artist Philip Aguirre. The jury praised the artist because his work fascinates with its interplay of form and content. He creates his own universe, one that is both recognizable and strange. The jury of the Flemish Culture Prize for Visual Arts honors Michaël Borremans as "an intriguing and honest artist for whom beauty is not taboo and whose original oeuvre perpetuates the international image of the pictorial tradition in Flanders."

Michaël Borremans (1963, lives in Ghent) originally trained as a graphic designer. He was 35 years old when he allowed paint, brushes and canvas into his studio for the first time. Initially, the hand of the printmaker and draftsman was still visible in his small-format paintings. Then, in ten years, he went through an incredible evolution as a painter. Until 2000, his work was shown only by small art organisations. His breakthrough came in 2000 in an exhibition by the 'Association for the Museum of Contemporary Art'. Subsequently, his work became popular among gallery owners, collectors and the general public. In the first decade of this century, Michael Borremans became one of Belgium's most important artists. Over the last two years, an exhibition of his work has travelled to Oslo, Stuttgart, Budapest and Helsinki. In 2014, a major retrospective will be held at BOZAR in Brussels and then go on to Tokyo and Dallas.

Visual Arts

Ante Timmermans in Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

bam — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:15:56 +0000

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Kunstmuseum St Gallen is proud to present Ante Post Ante, Ante Timmermans' first major exhibition in Switzerland. Since his contribution to Manifesta 9, Ante Timmermans (°1976, Ninove) has been considered as one of the most exciting artists of his generation. His installation Make a Molehill out of a Mountain (of Work) (2012) is based on a graphic work which has been extended in space.

What is a drawing? Timmermans translated this fundamental question into a veritable artistic universe with everyday observations, systems of analysis and visions of urban space, between Disneyfication and Gotham City aesthetics. The city as a metaphor for the creative process forms the basis of his artistic activity. These poetic reflections on the world recognise the volatile medium of drawing. Despite sometimes grim visions, the artist succeeds in a humorous way to let the familiar seem absurd - as a disillusioned dream of an urban poet.

Curator: Konrad Bitterli

Ante Timmermans, Ante Post Ante
10 November 2012 – 17 March 2013
More information: www.kunstmuseumsg.ch

Visual Arts

Nav Haq awarded the ICI Independent Vision Curatorial Award

bam — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:19:22 +0000

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Nav Haq has been awarded the ICI's 2012 Independent Vision Curatorial Award. The honor reflects ICI's commitment to supporting curators from around the world who have shown exceptional creativity and prescience in their exhibition-making, research, and related writing. Nav Haq and Jay Sanders, the two winners of the prize, have been selected by Hans Ulrich Obrist from a shortlist of upcoming curators who were nominated by 15 internationally established curators for the strengths of exhibitions or projects that they have recently produced anywhere worldwide.

Nav Haq has been curator at M HKA, Antwerp, since April 2012. From 2007-2012 he was Exhibitions Curator at Arnolfini, Bristol, and from 2004-2007 he was Curator at Gasworks, London. Haq was previously also a guest editor at Book Works, London, developing a series of artist's books with the artists Rosalind Nashashibi and Olivia Plender. In 2011, he was a selection committee member for the British Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Also in 2011, he curated the inaugural MARKER section at Art Dubai, inviting experimental art organizations from across Asia and the Middle East to develop special projects for the context of the fair. Haq has also contributed to numerous periodicals including frieze, Kaleidoscope and Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, amongst others.

Haq has curated many solo projects with artists such as Hassan Khan, Cosima von Bonin, Shilpa Gupta, Janek Simon, Katleen Vermeir & Ronny Heiremans, Imogen Stidworthy and Kerry Tribe. Group exhibitions have included Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction, co-curated with Al Cameron (2012); Museum Show – a major historical survey of (semi-fictional) museums created by artists (2011); Magical Consciousness, co-curated with artist Runa Islam (2011); the two-person exhibition The Sea Wall presenting works by Haegue Yang and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2011); Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie: Class Hegemony in Contemporary Art, co-curated with Tirdad Zolghadr (2006-09); and Contour Biennial 2007, Mechelen, Belgium. In collaboration with Bassam El Baroni and Jeremy Beaudry, he initiated the online project The ARPANET Dialogues.

More information: http://curatorsintl.org

Visual Arts

Michaël Borremans in Bawag Foundation

bam — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:39:28 +0000

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BAWAG Contemporary is pleased to present Magnetics, the first solo exhibition of Belgian artist Michaël Borremans in Austria.

Michaël Borremans's paintings are still and their somnambulant characters, use of shadows, and accentuation of hands and gestures at times recall old silent films, their plot and emotions likewise transported by images alone. An essential aspect of these nature morte pictures is that they bring the enchanted characters so completely to life on the canvas that one cannot imagine them as living somewhere else. Some of them, which one might call the living dead, are painted in a pensive pose or semi-conscious state right in the middle of the composition. While their faces are largely obscured, the atmosphere is psychologically charged. The figures are captured in various stages of reverie so total as to negate the presence of the viewer.

Michaël Borremans, Magnetics
23 November 2012 - 17 February 2013
More information: www.bawag-foundation.at

Visual Arts

The Netherlands - de Appel - Dirk Braeckman

bam — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:15:04 +0000

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de Appel arts centre is proud to present a solo project by the Belgian photographer and filmmaker Dirk Braeckman.

Since the early 1990s Dirk Braeckman (°1958, Belgium) has built up an oeuvre of enigmatic photographs, large prints in black and white and shades of grey that reveal ambiguous images: desolate areas, reflecting wallpaper, a blurred painting, a fragment of a nude. Braeckman gives central place to atmosphere, texture and suggestion. The photographs have a snapshot-like, ephemeral quality, while each image is actually composed in a very precise way. Every detail is important: the cropping, the light, colour and texture, the lack of focus, and the material on which the photograph is printed. Braeckman approaches and treats photography like a painter.   In this exhibition Braeckman presents a carefully chosen selection of new photographs culled from the untitled publication recently released by Roma Publications (a cross between an artist's book and a catalogue raisonné). From his extensive archive of negatives Braeckman selected "new images", that have never been printed and that will be premiered in de Appel arts centre. Braeckman will equally reveal one of the lesser well-known aspects of his oeuvre in de Appel: a new film for the first time, which elaborates on previous film experiments.

From 17 November 2012 to 31 March 2013
More information: www.deappel.nl

Visual Arts

Belgian abstract painter Raoul De Keyser has died

bam — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:01:41 +0000

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Raoul De Keyser, one of Belgium's major abstract painters, has died at the age of 82. De Keyser has since the 60s built up a very personal oeuvre that cannot be pinned down to any fixed category.

At the start of his career, De Keyser was a major representative of the New Vision movement, in which recognizable motifs from everyday life were reduced to points and lines. From the 70s, his work turned more abstract. He became famous for his depiction of football fields. Later he worked on very lively and colourful paintings.

Raoul De Keyser's work has been featured in national and international museums. De Keyser also took part in Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale. In 2004, the Whitechapel Gallery in London showed the largest exhibition of his work to date.

More information on Raoul De Keyser.

Visual Arts