Positioning itself in line with other high profile international events, Brussels Art Days has been renamed more appropriately as the Brussels Gallery Weekend.
For the 9th year in a row, this event launches the gallery season with a dynamic program of exhibitions, panel discussions and tours of the city’s leading contemporary art galleries and institutional art venues.
The New York Times recently highlighted how Art Brussels week makes the European capital a “serious destination for collectors of contemporary art,” and this 4-day event places a spotlight on the quality, diversity and vision that have built Brussels’ reputation as a trend setting city. In addition to the main program, a strong buzz of satellite activities is expected as the energy spreads around town in September.
Brussels Gallery Weekend shows not only why Brussels is a serious destination for collectors, but also why it’s become one for artists, curators and other cultural catalysts.
THE GALLERIES
31 local galleries have been invited to join this year’s event, which compiles a program of leading international artists, rising local talents and an innovative curatorial program.
Aeroplastics • Valérie Bach • Albert Baronian • Bernier/Eliades • Didier Claes • Dauwens & Beernaert • dépendance • Dvir • Feizi • MLF | Marie-Laure Fleisch • Pierre-Marie Giraud • Gladstone • Hopstreet • Xavier Hufkens • Jablonka Maruani Mercier • Rodolphe Janssen • Keitelman • Harlan Levey Projects • Maniera • Greta Meert • Meessen De Clercq • Jan Mot • Nathalie Obadia • Office Baroque • Almine Rech • Michel Rein • Sorry We’re Closed • Stems • Micheline Szwajcer • Daniel Templon • Caroline Van Hoek
CURATORIAL APPROACH
“The Dispersed Museum”
Following last year’s collaboration with Caroline Dumalin of WIELS, in 2016, Brussels Gallery Weekend has invited Matteo Lucchetti as guest curator.
Lucchetti proposes an overarching theme, The Dispersed Museum, which offers an alternative way to navigate the shows as if they were parts of an imaginary museum’s program. The suggestion is that “existing public institutions and galleries shape a strong and solid offer, which could be alternatively observed as the program of a dispersed museum with many different active spots rather than a system relying on one centralizing building.” The lack of a Museum of Contemporary Art in Brussels becomes a trigger to involve the local community of artists, curators, gallerists and collectors in a round table discussion that re-imagines the future role and functions of the museum.
In the context of this offer, round table discussions with industry influencers and special international guests will be held at the KVS theatre on Saturday, September 10th.
#My_dispersed_museum
The new Brussels Gallery Weekend website not only introduces the event’s new visual identity, but following the vision of Lucchetti, allows you to create your personalized paths based on individual interests.
Visitors will be able to select the hash-tags (#) to create and print a map of exhibitions they would like to see. You choose for example, #conceptual #painting #postcolonial #video and the website will generate a route of all the exhibitions that fit one or more of these criteria.
AROUND TOWN
Every year Brussels Gallery Weekend also puts a spotlight on some of the outstanding non-profit, institutional and artist run spaces that contribute to the city’s inspiring contemporary art landscape as well as some of the private collections that have helped raise the profile of Brussels as a leading destination for contemporary art. Brussels based curators Sonia Dermience (Komplot) and Anne-Claire Schmitz (La Loge) will join Lucchetti in guiding guests to different destinations as each develops their own tour through the weekend’s activities.
