Arts Flanders Visual Arts

Jan De Cock in Staatlichen Kunsthalle Baden-Baden

bam — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:29:05 +0000

Homepage image:

This exhibition made by Jan De Cock, is the second part of the exhibition project with the general title Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The first was on view at the With-Out Studio in Knokke-Heist from September till January 2012, where six cahiers were presented during the course of six months.

Jan De Cock chose Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the protagonist of this serial, as the title for this exhibition project on spectacle and culture. In the exhibition, the oblique shadow of her image comes to the fore, evoking an image that involuntary traces the road that crosses borders and time. The themes of the cahiers will be translated in this sculptural exhibition.

In addition a catalogue will be published with a summary of the oeuvre of the artist. Both the publication and the exhibition, as well as the six graphic bundles fall within each other's margins inside the same all-encompassing concept.

The exhibition Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eine Romantische Ausstellung will be shown at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden from 10 March till 24 June 2012.

More info: www.kunsthalle-baden-baden.de - www.jandecock.net

Visual Arts

Kris Martin at Kunstmuseum Bonn

bam — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:17:47 +0000

Homepage image:

The work of the Belgian artist, Kris Martin, born in 1972, radiates intense experiences of the finite and the transient, of life and death. In his works–which include installation, photography, drawing, script and sound–the artist discusses the presence of time, the power of imagination and memory, beauty and its terrors. He also inquires into the possibility of spirituality, eternity, religion and God. Despite their melancholic, symbolic and romantic aspects, Martin's works are not categorical or histrionic, but often rooted in skeptical humor. The formal diversity and the sensual, material qualities of his objects are combined with austere conceptuality, playful elegance and cool, puristic concentration.

Martin often uses found objects, always with their own history in tow, while, on the other hand, objects that are elaborately produced for him; his works range from smallest formats to room-filling environments. He inquires into the fleetingness and fragility of life in view of his own person while, at the same time, always involving the viewer. It is one of Martin's main work strategies not only to isolate things from their original context but to remove, superimpose and overwrite their essential information in such a way that the seemingly familiar becomes enigmatic. Viewers are irritated and motivated enough to fill the blanks with their own experience.

Kunstmuseum Bonn is showing the first comprehensive exhibition of Martin's oeuvre in Europe in collaboration with Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau and the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover. An extensive catalogue, co-designed by the artist, will be published in concert with the exhibition with essays by Volker Adolphs, Susanne Figner, Antonia Lotz and Madeleine Schuppli.

Kris Martin
Every Day of the Weak
2/02-22/04/2012

More info: www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de

Visual Arts

GAGARIN and A Prior Magazine selected for Millenium Magazines at MoMa New York

bam — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:55:16 +0000

Homepage image:

GAGARIN and A Prior Magazine were selected for the "Millenium Magazines" exhibition that will take place from 20 February to 14 May 2012 at MoMa in New York.

This survey of experimental art and design magazines published since 2000 explores the various ways in which contemporary artists and designers utilize the magazine format as an experimental space for the presentation of artworks and text. Throughout the 20th century, international avant-garde activities in the visual arts and design were often codified first in the informal context of a magazine or journal. This exhibition, drawn from the holdings of the MoMA Library, follows the practice into the 21st century. The works on view represent a broad array of international titles within this genre, from community-building newspapers to image-only photography magazines to conceptual design projects. The contents illustrate a diverse range of image-making, editing, design, printing, and distribution practices. There are obvious connections to the past lineage of artists' magazines and little architecture and design magazines of the 20th century, as well as a clear sense of the application of new techniques of image-editing and printing methods. Assembled together, these contemporary magazines provide a first-hand view into these practices and represents the MoMA Library's sustained effort to document and collect this medium.

Organized by Rachael Morrison and David Senior, MoMA Library

More info: www.gagarin.be - www.aprior.org

Visual Arts

SuperBodies

vti — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:13:14 +0000

3rd Triennial for Contemporary Art, Fashion and Design

Homepage image:

‘SuperBodies’ is the third edition of the triennial for contemporary art, fashion and design organised by the city of Hasselt. The first edition was simply called ‘Super!’ Starting with the second edition, a specific theme was chosen for each edition. In 2009 that theme was ‘stories’. Hence the title ‘SuperStories’. For 2012, the chosen theme is the human body. So this edition is called ‘SuperBodies’.

However, in spite of its name, ‘SuperBodies’ is not an exhibition about super-bodies and super-people. On the contrary, it is actually about just regular bodies. Because even though bodies are not all that extraordinary or perfect, they do do wonderful things—they are, in fact, wonderful machines.

For decades now, the body had been ubiquitous, in art as well as in the popular media, in fashion and in design. Even dance focuses more and more on the body in and of itself, not on the steps that the dancers perform. However, the media in particular seldom shows regular bodies. On the contrary, they wholesale extreme bodies—extremely perfect, heroic, ecstatic or just extremely pitiful. Those bodies are so different from the normal that they fascinate us because of their oddity. That fascination goes hand in hand with a considerable attention to the culture of body. Sometimes it seems as if one expects a final truth—an ultimate fulfilment—from the body.

Our mortal body however seldom succeeds in fulfilling all those big expectations. The body of the media is far removed from everyday life. However, as long as we blindly stare at that extraordinary body, we will not be able to see how extraordinary the ordinary body is. Innumerable bodily processes, which we barely notice, steer our being and our thinking. That is the point of departure of this exhibition. Can one reflect on this and then turn a performance of those unobserved bodily processes into art? How do these processes relate to our conscious thoughts and feelings? And what then is there to see? Curator Pieter T’Jonck asked himself these same questions during the compilation of this exhibition.

He discovered that many, leading artists had devoted (a portion of) their oeuvres to these questions, long in the shadow of the great force of media. Although now they reap ever increasing recognition because they confront us with material things and how we perceive and experience them.

Things that we do daily, without thinking but which are all mediated by our bodies.

Artists collaborating are Lemm&Barkey, Meg Stuart, Ivo Dimchev, Trisha Brown, Lisbeth Gruwez, Deufert & Plischke, William Forsythe, Superamas, and many more!

More info:
SuperBodies, 3rd Triennial for Contemporary Art, Fashion and Design
4/2/2012 > 27/5/2012
Different locations in Hasselt BE
www.superbodies.be

Visual Arts

Conférence-débat - Retour de Venise | Terug naar Venetië - La Biennale di Venezia : Regard rétrospectif et perspectives futures

bam — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:25:48 +0000

Homepage image:

Formulaire d'inscription - Inschrijvingsformulier

Fondée en 1895, la Biennale de Venise est considérée comme la plus prestigieuse manifestation internationale d'art contemporain. Cette exposition, organisée tous les deux ans, a été à l'origine calquée sur le modèle des expositions universelles, raison selon laquelle elle se trouve centrée sur les pavillons nationaux situés dans les Giardini. Au début du vingtième siècle, elle rassemblait essentiellement des pays européens (Belgique, Espagne, France, Royaume-Uni, Russie, etc.) ; elle s'est ensuite ouverte à divers pays (surtout occidentaux) et d'autres continents. Par ailleurs, une exposition centrale, dont le commissaire est renouvelé à chaque édition, est également organisée. Elle se tenait à l'origine dans le seul pavillon italien, et s'est ensuite étendue à l'Arsenal, transformé en espace d'exposition. En 2011, quelque 450.000 visiteurs et 4.500 journalistes accrédités ont visité la Biennale.

Les pays qui ne possèdent pas de pavillon dans les Giardini louent à prix fort des espaces dans la ville, parfois avec le soutien d'acteurs privés (banques ou galeries), constituant une programmation parallèle ou 'collatérale' qui ne cesse de s'étoffer. Les artistes qui y sont présentés proviennent non seulement de nations occidentales, mais également des pays émergents. Le secteur privé y est aussi de plus en plus actif et visible : il met sur pied ses propres expositions, que celles-ci fassent ou non partie de la programmation collatérale. Ainsi la concession de l'immeuble à la Punta della Dogana acquise par François Pinault pour la présentation de sa collection est significative de cette tendance.

La Biennale de Venise a souvent été critiquée pour son expansion continue et la diversité des intérêts qui sont à l'œuvre dans cette présentation de l'art contemporain. Le principe national et son orientation principalement occidentale ont également été critiqués, le monde des arts plastiques et visuels opérant, essentiellement, de manière internationale. L'implication des Etats et la présence croissante du marché de l'art y font aussi l'objet de débats récurrents. Enfin, de nombreuses autres biennales ont émergé ces dernières décennies dans le monde, et certaines d'entre elles présentent, en comparaison, un contenu qui peut être jugé plus cohérent par rapport à la Biennale de Venise qui apparaît ainsi, parfois, telle une Hydre à plusieurs têtes.

La Biennale reste néanmoins une des manifestations artistiques les plus importantes, et ce tant pour les artistes et les professionnels que pour les autorités et les amateurs d'art. Plus que les autres biennales, Venise ose montrer les forces actives aujourd'hui sur la scène internationale des arts plastiques et visuels, parmi lesquelles les visiteurs, d'origines et de provenances très diverses, peuvent venir faire leur choix. Il s'agit, pour un Etat, pour les artistes et les commissaires, de composer avec ce contexte particulier. Considérée par certains comme la perpétuation d'un principe désuet d'exposition imposant un nombre excessif de manifestations, la 'Biennale des biennales' se complexifie cependant chaque fois davantage, tout en expérimentant, avec un certain succès, certaines formules de renouvellement.

Pour la Biennale des Arts plastiques (et pour celle d'Architecture), le Pavillon belge, inauguré en 1907, est utilisé à tour de rôle par la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles et la Communauté flamande. Comment les autorités francophones et flamandes, les artistes et commissaires gèrent-ils ce pavillon et la Biennale? Comment évaluer ces prises de position à la lumière des choix d'autres petits pays européens?

Jetant un regard rétrospectif sur l'exposition 'Feuilleton' d'Angel Vergara, dont le commissaire était Luc Tuymans, et dans la perspective de l'occupation du pavillon belge par la Communauté flamande pour la 55ème édition de la Biennale, le Service des Arts plastiques et le Service des Collections de la CFWB, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, le BAM et l'Agence pour les Arts et le Patrimoine de la Communauté flamande organisent un débat autour de la question:

Comment la Belgique peut-elle être présente à Venise? Quel est l'objectif de notre participation et comment adapter la procédure de sélection et les modalités de réalisation?

Programme:

Les deux Communautés exposeront leurs objectifs, leurs budgets et leurs méthodes de travail. Par ailleurs, l'artiste Angel Vergara et les commissaires Laurent Jacob et Dirk Snauwaert commenteront leurs expériences concrètes à la Biennale. Pour clôturer la rencontre, Anette Østerby, de l'Agence danoise pour la culture et les arts plastiques, et la commissaire d'exposition Katerina Gregos nous présenteront la façon dont elles ont occupé le pavillon danois lors de la 54ème édition passée.

Présentations par :

Frédéric Delcor (Secrétaire général de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) et Jos Van Rillaer (Administrateur-général de l'Agence pour les Arts et le Patrimoine du Ministère de la Communauté flamande), Ariane Fradcourt (Directrice générale adjointe du Service général du Patrimoine culturel et des Arts plastiques du Ministère de la FWB) et Stan Van Pelt (Team Internationaal Kunsten, Agence pour les Arts et le Patrimoine)
Laurent Jacob (Espace 251 Nord, Liège), Dirk Snauwaert (Wiels, Bruxelles), Angel Vergara (artiste du Pavillon belge en 2011),
Katerina Gregos (commissaire du pavillon danois en 2011) et Anette Østerby (Agence danoise pour la culture et les arts plastiques).

Modérateur: Jean-Marie Wynants

Questions-réponses

Informations pratiques:
Le 7 février à 18h00 (jusqu'à 20h30) au Studio de BOZAR, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles

La conférence sera suivie d'un drink.

Places en nombre limité: inscriptions conseillées avant le 4 février via le formulaire d'inscription.

Une conférence organisée par:

Le Service général du Patrimoine culturel et des Arts plastiques du Ministère de la Communauté française de Belgique,
Wallonie-Bruxelles International,
L'Agence des Arts et du Patrimoine de la Communauté flamande,
BAM, Institut flamand pour les arts visuels, audiovisuels et numériques

Visual Arts

Visual Arts Flanders 2012 - A cluster of visual arts exhibitions only one hour away from Brussels

bam — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:16:36 +0000

Visual Arts

Germany - Berlin - Künstlerhaus Bethanien - Maryam Najd

bam — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:39:21 +0000

Homepage image:

Maryam Najd
Non Existence Flag Project
20 January - 12 February 2012

Maryam Najd is a political artist- and yet she is aware of the futility of any expressly activistic "political art". She is concerned with construction of identity and the exclusion of the other; the relation between nationality and internationally; and the subtle nuances that distinguish national orientation from national bearing.

Her Non Existence Flag Project (2010- with planned continuance until 2012) is comprised of 195 paintings of identical format (80 x 60 cm). Each painting symbolises one of the 195 flags of the world's nation, and they are presented in correlation to the names of the various nations- arranged in alphabetic order. The awaited flag-form, however, has been abandoned by the artist completely; neither the expected horizontal format nor the awaited variance in characteristics or design has been retained.

Najd employs an altogether democratic process in that she generates an average of value from the colours of each individual flag to finally achieve monochrome paintings which are truly egalitarian. It is solely due to a number of subtly modulated light reflexes that one is still able to discern the hand of the artist. With this unity of colour, she disengages all symbolic preferentiality and plans off the ornamental particularities. Najd displays nations without attributes. Though the notion of nationality retains a colourful character and format, it no longer affords any grounds for confrontation; inasmuch as the colour constitutes a relative relational phenomenon, a fundamental denationalisation occurs- whereby Najd reaffirms the validity of Josef Albers' finding that, with the right amount of effort, any colour "goes" or "works" with any other colour.

Text by Christian Malycha (translated by Nathan Moore).

More info: www.bethanien.de - www.maryamnajd.com

Visual Arts

Dieter Roelstraete appointed senior curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

bam — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:50:32 +0000

Homepage image:

Dieter Roelstraete has been appointed the new Manilow Senior Curator at the MCA. Roelstraete is currently curator at M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst) in Antwerp, Belgium, where he has organized large-scale group exhibitions and monographic shows. He will assume his new responsibilities at the MCA in February 2012.

Originally trained as a philosopher at the University of Ghent, Belgian-born Roelstraete has worked at the M HKA since 2003. His curatorial projects there include Emotion Pictures (2005); Intertidal, a survey show of contemporary art from Vancouver (2005); The Order of Things (2008); Auguste Orts: Correspondence (2010); Liam Gillick and Lawrence Weiner - A Syntax of Dependency (2011); A Rua: The Spirit of Rio de Janeiro (2011) and the collaborative projects Academy: Learning from Art (2006); The Projection Project (2007); and All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (2009). He is currently preparing a retrospective of Chantal Akerman, opening at M HKA in February 2012. In 2005, Roelstraete co-curated Honoré d'O: The Quest in the Belgian pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale. He has also organized solo exhibitions of Roy Arden (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2007), Steven Shearer (De Appel, Amsterdam, 2007), and Zin Taylor (Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, 2011), as well as small-scale group shows in galleries and institutions in Belgium and Germany.

Roelstraete is an editor of Afterall and a contributing editor to A Prior Magazine, and has published extensively on contemporary art and philosophical issues in numerous catalogues and journals including Artforum, Frieze, and Mousse Magazine. He is one of the founders of the journal FR David and a tutor at De Appel in Amsterdam. In 2010, his book Richard Long: A Line Made By Walking was published by Afterall Books/The MIT Press, and a volume of his poetry will be published by ROMA in May 2012.

More info: www.mcachicago.org - www.muhka.be

Visual Arts

Drunk on Capitalism. An Interdisciplinary Reflection on Market Economy, Art and Science

bam — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:37:39 +0000

Homepage image:

Drunk on Capitalism. An Interdisciplinary Reflection on Market Economy, Art and Science

(Eds.) Robrecht Vanderbeeken, Frederik Le Roy, Christel Stalpaert and Diederik Aerts

This interdisciplinary collection of analyses discusses the impact of market economy on art and science in the post-Berlin Wall era. The first part, Science for Sale, focuses on the alliance of contemporary science and education with private funding, and how this contributes to the commodification of knowledge. The underlying questions are: Does economic power eclipse freedom of knowledge? When science and education become enterprises, what are the risks of selling off patented knowledge, of rhetorical abuse for business purposes or a commercialisation of symbolic capital? The second part, Buy Buy Art, elaborates on the multiple and ambiguous relations between art and money. Contemporary art claims to be autonomous. But art costs money and artists cannot live from their love of art alone. How do artists respond to the increase of economic conditions in our culture in general and the art market in particular? What is the value of a work of art now that it has also become an investment? Finally, what role is left for art in global, late-capitalist society?

This reader is based on the input of two symposia: Science For Sale and Buy Buy Art (for more information and web-video see www.interface.ugent.be under 'activities')

This reader is part of the series Einstein Meets Magritte: An Interdisciplinary Reflection on Science, Nature, Art, Human Action and Society. Volume 11, 2012, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-2082-4)

Available at: Springerlink.com and Amazon.

More info: www.interface.ugent.be

Visual Arts

Le Salon - A new online platform for contemporary art in Brussels

bam — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:54:04 +0000

Homepage image:

Le Salon is an online platform aimed at presenting, documenting and reflecting on the Brussels contemporary art scene. Le Salon is a curatorial project initiated by Devrim Bayar and developed in close collaboration with Virginie Devillez and Martin Laborde. Regular contributors and special guests are invited to contribute to the content of the website with reviews, interviews, studio visits or thematic texts.

Contributors: Devrim Bayar , Virginie Devillez , Martin Laborde , Valerie Verhack , Kareem Estefan , Esperanza Rosales , Anne-Claire Schmitz , Michael Van den Abeele , Yoann Van Parys

More info: http://welcometolesalon.be

Visual Arts

Vacancy - Z33 & Frans Masereel Centrum announce an open call for curatorial proposals

bam — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:03:30 +0000

Frans Masereel Centrum and Z33 are pleased to announce an open call for curatorial proposals for an exhibition on graphic arts in Z33 from October 28 – December 31, 2012.

Because of the need to broaden the network of both international and national curators, and in order to stimulate curatorial strategies and concepts in the field of graphic arts, the Frans Masereel Centrum and Z33, house for contemporary art, are launching an international open call for curatorial proposals.

Postmark deadline: 16 January 2012

Download full description here

Proposals should be sent via mail or email to Sofie Dederen
Frans Masereel Centrum (t.a.v. Sofie Dederen), Masereeldijk 5
2460 Kasterlee, Belgium

More info: www.z33.be - www.fransmasereelcentrum.be

Visual Arts

New release A Prior #22 - Picasso in Palestine

bam — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:55:42 +0000

Homepage image:

The 22nd edition of A Prior Magazine is dedicated to Picasso in Palestine, an artistic project initiated by Palestinian artist Khaled Hourani (artistic director of the International Academy of Art Palestine) and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In June 2011, Pablo Picasso's iconic work Buste de Femme (1943, part of the Van Abbemuseum collection) undertook a journey from Eindhoven to Ramallah, where it was exhibited for three weeks. Preceding this border-crossing loan agreement were two years of extensive research and negotiations in the legal, artistic and administrative fields. A Prior has made a critical, multifaceted report of the journey of Picasso's Buste de Femme to Palestine and back, exposing relations between art, politics and geography along the way - thanks to contributions from more then 15 authors and artists - resulting in a unique 280 full-colour pages edition, brought to you in two languages: English and Arabic.

Editor: Els Roelandt
Contributing Editors: Shuruq Harb and Remco de Blaaij
Contributors: Lynda Morris, Khaled Hourani, Rasha Salti, Charles Esche, Samir Harb, Eyal Weizman, Renzo Martens, Andrew Conio, Daniel Miller, Yazeed Anani, Thomas Hirschhorn, Younes Bouadi, Eric Gottesman and Toleen Touq, Sander Buyck, Laurens Dhaenens, ArtTerritories with Shuruq Harb and Ursula Biemann, Beshara Doumani, Nahed Awwad, Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Basel Abbas, Yassin Inass, Unni Gjertsen, Galit Eilat, Katia Reich, Artur Zmijevski, Khaled Jarrar…

More information: www.aprior.org

Visual Arts

Martha Herford - Ashes and Gold - with works by a.o. Guillaume Bijl and Filip Gilissen

bam — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:55:11 +0000

Homepage image:

For the first time an exhibition attempts the surprising combination of two specific materials in contemporary art: ash and gold, two substances which could hardly be more different in terms of their cultural significance. Spaces between nature and culture, between life and death are opened up for the visitor in the field of tension between these two highly symbolic materials.

Gold is, therefore, not only an elementary natural material, but also a valuable resource par excellence and an expression of man's desire for the exclusive, the rare, the unique. Ash, on the other hand, appears as its dark, opposite side. It is the residue of the combustion process, the last stage in material transformation, irreversible and final. In the field of tension between these highly symbolic but opposite materials we enter a sensually palpable space between nature and culture, value and myth, between life and death.

As materials in art they are anything but superficial, because they always speak of an open spirit which invents them, stages them and thereby permanently changes itself. And as symbols of cold, eternal material and hot, material-consuming energy, they are materials with great symbolic power which address the observer almost directly. The high-carat exhibition with numerous renowned artists offers a stimulating parcours through the history of art in the last 40 years.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with Dr. Anne Schloen, Cologne.

Artists: Pawel Althamer, Gili Avissar, Massimo Bartolini, Lore Bert, Joseph Beuys, Guillaume Bijl, Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars, Jacques Charlier, Paolo Chiasera, Anja Ciupka, Thomas Demand, Igor Eskinja, Luka Fineisen, Lucio Fontana, Michel François, Gilbert & George, Félix González-Torres, Filip Gilissen, Subodh Gupta, David Hammons, Douglas Henderson, Andy Hope 1930, Rebecca Horn, Alfredo Jaar, Anish Kapoor, Yves Klein, Stefanie Klingemann, Jannis Kounellis, Gereon Krebber, Bruno Krenz, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Maik und Dirk Löbbert, Heinz Mack, Yaël Nazé, Louise Nevelson, Navid Nuur, Wolfgang Paalen, Mimmo Paladino, Otto Piene, Sigmar Polke, Friederike von Rauch, Man Ray, Erich Reusch, Gerhard Richter, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Jürgen Stollhans, Ines Tartler, Hermann de Vries, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Claudia Wieser, Richard Wright.

Ashes and Gold
A World's Journey
28 January - 22 April 2012

More info: http://marta-herford.info

Visual Arts

Call for applications - Frans Masereel Centrum Residency 2012

bam — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:36:58 +0000

Homepage image:

The Frans Masereel Centrum (FMC) offers space for the development of graphic projects based on artistic production, research or based on an artistic/theoretical discourse. Eligible are professional artists, designers, theoreticians, critics and researchers who can present a consistent curriculum or a portfolio with relevance to the FMC as a graphic competence centre, or with added value for the current visual arts domain.

Residents are both graphic and non-graphic artists who work individually or together. The FMC welcomes national and international residents to guarantee cultural diversity.

There are two selection stages each year. Two to three months beforehand the FMC issues an open call mentioning the different forms of residencies and the last date for the submission of applications. A number of admission requirements are associated with the application file .

Deadline for July 2012 to November 2012: 1 February 2011

More info: www.fransmasereelcentrum.be

Visual Arts

MU.Zee - Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven

bam — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:58:06 +0000

Homepage image:

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven
18 February - 27 May 2012

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven's artistic output includes a diverse array of mediums including painting, drawing, collage, computer animation, installation, and zines. Van Kerkhoven synthesizes disparate visual and textual elements in her work. Her illustrational technique favors hard-edged flat planes in a neon RGB palette, with her most common imagery being drawn from pre-sexual revolution soft pornography. She appropriates text from a range of discourses, including philosophy, science, poetry and theology. Her work addresses metaphysical reflections on mind, body, universe and perception.

A co-production with the Renaissance Society of Chicago.

Image: Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven

More info: www.mu-zee.be

Visual Arts

Netwerk - Vincent Meessen - Lidwien van de Ven - Mohamed El Baz

bam — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:31:40 +0000

Homepage image:

Vincent Meessen
My Last Life
10 December 2011 - 3 March 2011

In his exhibition entitled My Last Life, Vincent Meessen (°1971, BE/US) lines out an ambitious plot involving "Herbé", a double character of the author and critic Roland Barthes. Vincent Meessen fits Barthes, himself the writer of the famous Mythologies, within the mold of the ultimate "mythological" project: namely the artist who transcends his role as creator to occupy a role as a character within his work. Besides this conceptual and critical approach of the writer, Meessen presents colonial figures that were both a part of Barthes's writings and his real life. Was his grandfather not Louis-Gustave Binger, the 'explorer-traveler' who annexed the Ivory Coast to the French Empire? In his critically-acclaimed film Vita Nova, through sculptures and photographs, Meessen proposes a case study on the necessity to build singular critical apparatus in order to think the relations between modernity and coloniality in all their complexity.

Image: Vincent Meessen Vita Nova (still Image), 2009

Lidwien van de Ven
Freedom
10 December 2011 - 3 March 2012

With her photographs Lidwien van de Ven (°1963, NL) focuses on issues of politics and religion while she postulates questions concerning the expressiveness of journalistic images. Her photos do not reveal their different layers of meaning at once, for they are poised upon the border between the visible and invisible, where the documentary, poetic and disturbing are brought together in a careful balance.

The photograph, Paris, 12/26/2006 (Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité) shows a nighttime street in the Marais. Current political controversies often make references to the three concepts that appear in this work. Simultaneously, they are also a part of the history of this particular Parisian district. This image and these words are the basis for the artist installation.

Image: Paris, 12/26/2006 (Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité)

Mohamed El Baz
Bricoler l'incurable
10 December 2011 - 3 March 2012

As an artist, Mohamed El baz (°1967, MA) has only one goal before him: to fix the things around him, in his own words "the irreparable." In his work El baz explores the notions of borders and territories, especially those what would raise barriers between individuals. El baz plays upon three themes in his work: the everyday, the autobiographical and the playful. The work itself is nomadic and transforms itself according to the context.

Image: Mohamed El baz, Never Basta

These exhibitions are part of the European project Interreg IVa '2 Mers Seas Zeeën' Cross-boarder cooperative programme 2007-2013. This project is a cooperation between Aspex (Portsmouth), Boem vzw (Kunst & Zwalm), Fabrica (Brighton), L'H du Siège (Valenciennes), La Malterie (Lille) and Netwerk (Aalst). United by the motto 'Investing in your future' sustainable strategies for audience paticipation are developed. More info: Iris, Contemporary Art Network

More info: www.netwerk-art.be

Visual Arts

Bozar - Cy Twombly - Per Kirkeby

bam — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:24:25 +0000

Homepage image:

Cy Twombly
Photographs 1951-2010
1 February - 29 April 2012

The exhibition Cy Twombly. Photographs 1951-2010 presents more than 100 dry prints, generated from Polaroid photographs, which were selected in close cooperation with the artist himself prior to his death on July 5th, 2011. Cy Twombly's photographs have been a rather recent discovery. Snapping photographs with his Polaroid camera since his student days, the artist did not make available to the public his photographic material until the 90s. The subject matter of his photographs varies considerably. From still-life images of flowers and brushes, snap shots of his studio and museums interiors, details from his paintings to views of ancient temples and atmospheric landscapes, the ethereal and delicate photographs reveal the themes that have nourished the artist's paintings, drawings, sculptures and graphic art. The exhibition will include a number of paintings by Cy Twombly and the intimate cinematic portrait "Edwin Parker" by artist Tacita Dean as a tribute to the recently deceased greatest artist of our times.

Image: Cy Twombly, Brushes, Lexington,2005, dryprint on cardboard, 43,1 x 27,9 cm, courtesy : Schirmer/Mosel Verlag - Fondazione Nicola del Roscio

Per Kirkeby
And the Forbidden Paintings of Kurt Schwitters
10 February - 20 May 2012

The Centre for Fine Arts presents a retrospective of the work of Per Kirkeby (born in 1938), one of the key painters of the Danish avant-garde. But just what does avant-garde mean: rupture, minimalism, abstraction, borrowings, subversion? One can find all of those in a prolific body of work that began in the 1960s in the wake of the Fluxus movement. But that is only one aspect of a very diverse oeuvre that draws just as much on the figuration of Danish classicism and the experiments of 19th-century French masters such as Eugène Delacroix. Kirkeby cannot be pigeonholed, nor does he want to be: he prefers to relentlessly question the position and the perceptions of the observer. An artistic process that has seen him turn to different media (canvas, blackboards, paper, bronze, etc.) in an assertion of the freedom he finds, as a trained geologist, in the omnipresence of nature. It is in this context that the Kurt Schwitters room in the exhibition is so relevant. Here, Kirkeby is not confronted with the Dadaist, but with an unfamiliar, figurative Schwitters, in love with landscape. "Forbidden paintings" – from the point of view of the modernist mainstream, that is. The Danish artist recognises in this work his own credo: a visceral assertion of his freedom as an artist.

Image: Per Kirkeby Cossus ligniperda, 1989 Öl auf Leinwand 290 x 350 cm AROS Aarhus Museum, Denmark

More info: www.bozar.be

Visual Arts

The Netherlands - The Hague - Herman Van Ingelgem "Zonsopondergang"

bam — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:52:52 +0000

Homepage image:

For his solo presentation at 1646, Herman van Ingelgem investigates the rhythm of daily life: describing his own work, he refers to the rhythm of murmur and sounds that occur while watching the show. Simple objects and the unexpected possibility of their influencing situations and relationships underlie his recent work which, in varying configurations, uncovers the pendulum movements between our daily life and our reflections.

Herman van Ingelgem usually starts with his immediate surroundings. His work is based on everyday architectural elements and recognizable objects. Like a cluster of gears, it grafts itself onto the existing reality and generates a (sometimes minimal) fluctuation in systems of meaning. His work questions our expectations and ideas concerning space, presentation, representation and how we handle our private experiences.

Zonsopondergang
Herman Van Ingelgem
10 December 2011 - 21 January 2012

More information: www.1646.nl - www.hermanvaningelgem.be

Visual Arts

Visual Arts Platform (VAP)

bam — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:17:27 +0000

Together with the Danish Arts Agency, the Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation and Pro Helvetia, BAM launched the Visual Arts Platform (VAP), a European network of arts agencies. This network is intended for sharing knowledge, information and data, and setting up collaborative projects around international visual arts policy.

The members of the Visual Arts Platform are institutions with a task or objective to stimulate and/or support the international presentation and exchange of professional visual arts and that meet the following conditions:

the institution contributes to or has an influence on the defenition of the international cultural policy in its own country or is involved in the implementation thereof;
the institution is active in the international promotion of professional art and artists from its own country;
the institution is active in the organisation, support, facilitation or stimulation of international activities, collaborations or presentations by artists or institutions;
the institution is involved in state presentations on behalf of its own country;
the institution operates on national and international level.

Its objectives are:

to stimulate international exchange and collaboration in the field of policy and strategy for the professional visual arts, in and outside of Europe;
to facilitate exchange of knowledge and information between the members;
to function as a platform for debate and international exchange.

The Visual Arts Platform attempts to achieve its objectives by:

facilitating collaboration between the members;
facilitating the development of policy, strategy and vision by the members, individually and together;
communally defining position on matters designated by the members;
organising regular meetings.

Visual Arts

Visual Arts Flanders 2012

bam — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:31:16 +0000

Homepage image:

Visual Arts Flanders 2012 is proud to present Beaufort 04 (Belgian coast), Track (Ghent), Middelheim (Antwerp), Manifesta9 (Genk) and Newtopia (Mechelen).

The favorable geographic positioning and the communal focus on contemporary art of these five events have been seized as an opportunity to create an international communication platform that gathers them into one comprehensive and appealing cluster.

In 2012, Belgium's neighboring countries also offer major happenings of contemporary art such as Documenta 13 (Kassel, Germany), London 2012 - Cultural Olympiad (UK), Lille 3000 (France) and Mono 2012 (Centre Pompidou, Metz, France together with Mudam, Luxembourg).
Visual Arts Flanders 2012 is certain that the high qualitative character of each of its five represented exhibitions will appeal to the arts professionals and culture tourists traveling to and from those events to make a stop in Belgium.

More information: www.visualartsflanders2012.be

Visual Arts

HISK Laureates 2011 Exhibition - The Visitor

bam — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:28:38 +0000

Homepage image:

The Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK) is pleased to present "The Visitor". Sonia Dermience and Heidi Ballet of the Brussels-based curatorial collective Komplot were asked to apply their ongoing investigations into nomadic creative practices and collective authorship to the exhibition by the twelve artists who have come to the end of their two-year working period at the HISK.

Acknowledging the individual practices of each artist, the curators have taken the HISK's front building as their starting point. The former officer's mess can be seen as an oversized bourgeois family house - with its wooden floors, fireplaces and high ceilings – and each artist has been given a room of their own for the duration of the exhibition. Instead of any overarching theme, the artists' individuality is highlighted within the building's framework. Just as families are often composed of very different individuals who do not choose each other, the exhibition as a whole is bound to reflect the eclectic reality of a particular time and space that the curators, artists and public will pass through, each with their individual perspective.

In addition to these visitors, for the duration of the exhibition the HISK is also pleased to welcome a special feline guest, Milord the cat, found at a local animal shelter. Milord's meanderings amongst the artworks on display will symbolically bind the show together. His particular view of the exhibition, recorded via a webcam that he will wear around his neck, can be viewed by the public on the HISK website.

Featuring HISK's 2011 laureates: Elise Berkvens, Céline Butaye, Zoro Feigl, Nicole Franchy, Sarah Gerats, Isabela Grosseova, Hedwig Houben, Miks Mitrevics, Noor Nuyten, Jan Op de Beeck, Karl Philips, Neha Sharma Sarai.

The Visitor
HISK Laureates 2011 Exhibition
19 November - 11 December 2011

More information: www.hisk.edu

Visual Arts

China - Guangdong Museum of Art - 4th Guangzhou Triennial - Koen Vanmechelen

bam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:36:56 +0000

Homepage image:

Modified Spaces
4th Guangzhou Triennial
Guangdong Museum of Art
22 September - 27 November 2011

The Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen is one of a handful of non-Chinese artists that is invited to the 4th Guangzhou Triennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art, China.

'Modified Spaces' is the name of Koen Vanmechelen's installation in the Guangdong Museum of art, one of the leading museums in China. Together with curator Peter Noever (Austria), the artist transforms three museum rooms into an incubation and conservation area and into an archaeological biotope. Koen Vanmechelen: "The visitor is drawn into a cage where he is provided with a mouth mask and has to walk through a disinfectant footbath. He must be free of germs to walk between the tropical plants and the primal chickens. He is exploring the narrow path between domestication and the wild." Also the fifteen international chicken species that so far make up Vanmechelen's Cosmopolitan Chicken Project will be part of the installation, symbolised by fifteen tables covered with eggs.

More information: www.gdmoa.org - www.koenvanmechelen.com

Visual Arts

Patrick Corillon winner of the Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby's Awards 2011

bam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:39:12 +0000

Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby's Awards 2011

This year, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró has imparted its Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby's Awards and Grants, to which it has devoted 66,500 Euros, distributed amongst the 4 awards and 11 education grants it offers. A total of 159 candidates of different nationalities submitted their art, research and educational projects.

The Pilar Juncosa i Sotheby's Award 2011 is dedicated to Patrick Corillon (Belgium, 1959) for his project "In my knees friendship".

More information: http://miro.palmademallorca.es - www.corillon.org

Visual Arts

Tate Modern - Chris Dercon Talks with Visual Arts Flanders 2012

bam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:32:35 +0000

Homepage image:

Visual Arts Flanders 2012, Tate Modern and Flanders House are happy to host an inspiring evening with Chris Dercon and the curators of 5 large contemporary art events happening in Belgium next year.

2012 brings the concurrence of important visual art exhibitions happening in Flanders, Belgium. Visual Arts Flanders 2012 is proud to present Beaufort 04 (Belgian coast), Track (Ghent), Middelheim (Antwerp), Manifesta9 (Genk) and Newtopia (Mechelen). The favourable geographic positioning and the communal focus on contemporary art of these five events have been seized as an opportunity to create an international communication platform that gathers them into one comprehensive and appealing cluster.

In 2012, Belgium's neighbouring countries also offer major contemporary art happenings such as Documenta 13 (Kassel, Germany), London 2012 - the Cultural Olympiad (UK), Lille 3000 (France) and Mono 2012 (Centre Pompidou, Metz, France together with Mudam, Luxembourg).
Visual Arts Flanders 2012 is certain that the quality of each of its five represented exhibitions will appeal to the arts professional and culture tourist travelling to and from those events to make a stop in Flanders.

The curators of the 5 events from the Visual Arts Flanders 2012 cluster will sit down in London with Chris Dercon to present their projects for the first time in the UK and to discuss the possibilities of a collaboration between art happenings/exhibitions beyond borders. Can communication and cooperation between contemporary art exhibitions from different countries generate added value for the individual events? How can each event help the other communication wise?

Clustering Art Exhibitions/Festivals beyond border?
Chris Dercon Talks With
Phillip Van den Bossche, Miriam Varadinis, Philippe Van Cauteren, Paul Robbrecht, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Dawn Ades and Katerina Gregos

Tuesday December 6, 2011 (8pm)
Tate Modern, London

More information: www.visualartsflanders.be

Free admission. Reservation: charline.adriaens@bamart.be

Visual Arts

UK - Plymouth - Platform P

bam — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:47:39 +0000

Homepage image:

Platform P
Group Exhibition
4-6 November 2011

Platform P is an experimental curatorial and collaborative platform for art in Plymouth, set up by Edith Doove and Ray White. It's a framework for activities that intend to engage with all ages and backgrounds with the arts as common denominator.

Platform P builds on the unique expertise of Ray White and Edith Doove to make for a truly original and energetic contribution to the cultural scene in Plymouth and the South West. In all our activities passionate engagement with communities (geographical, demographic, specialist) is important, in seeing the public as an equal dialogue partner with its own kind of knowledge that can feed into and contribute to the quality of the projects. Generosity is important to us, generosity to: the artists we work with and the audiences we engage with.

Artists: David Blandy, Olga Boldyreff, Sara Bomans, Nicola Canavan, Ryan Curtis, Alexandra Dementieva, Desert Island Vids, Anna Francis, Sally Hall, Hrafnhildur Halldorsdottir, Jason Hirons, Peter Hulsmans, Nathalie Hunter, Michèle Noach, Hannah Pollard, Stefaan Quix, Sylvia Rimat, Remco Roes, Alan Smith, Francesca Steele, Rebecca Weeks (in collaboration with Theatre Royal).

Edith Doove is a freelance curator, contributing researcher with Transtechnology Research at the University of Plymouth and part-time BA programme leader Fine Art, Curatorial and Critical Practices at Plymouth College of Art. Trained as an art historian with an MA from the University of Leiden, she has a substantial track record of 23 years working as a freelance curator in Belgium and a broad experience in the art field working with, and for, artists, non-for-profit organizations, museums, commercial galleries, city councils, board of directors, governmental organizations, funding, press and media. She has a special interest in inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations.

Ray White is a freelance curator, programmer and artist. Trained as an artist with an MA in Fine Art from Northumbria University, his areas of expertise include Live Art (including performance to camera), installation and socially-engaged practice working with vulnerable groups. He was a steering committee member of Platform North East (the NE's Live Art platform) for four years and project managed the yearly event in 2004 and 2005. He has programmed and delivered work in tower blocks, underground car parks, rivers, public houses, galleries and museums.

Image: Nathalie Hunter

More information: Platform P

Visual Arts