Are you certain this is a theatre performance? Cause it sure looks like a movie. Fabrice Murgia impresses once again with sombre ‘Exils’

Want another example of how funny this tiny country called Belgium can be? Fabrice Murgia. The 28-year old theatre director from the southern (French speaking) part of the country was elected man of the year by the lifestyle supplement of Walloon news weekly Le Vif. In the northern (Flemish speaking) part of the country he is virtually unknown and his theatre performances pass unnoticed. But they will have to talk about the man from Verviers: Murgia is invited for the renowned Festival d’Avignon in 2014, and will be collaborating with Flemish music and theatre company Lod for a big project. Murgia’s powerful new performance Exils, which premiered at Théâtre National (Brussels), is part of Cities on stage, an ambitious project for theatres in six European cities, supported by the European Commission.

Damn, that model moved again! Elegant modern and contemporary art exhibition at BAM (Mons)

Thinking of going to Michel François (MAC’s) before it closes this weekend? Then make your trip more worthwhile by stopping over at BAM (Mons) on the way for Le modèle a bougé (‘the model moved again’; through February 5), a small exhibition comprising works of Marcel Duchamp (La Boîte), Gerhard Richter (Pyramide), Roni Horn (Clownmirror), Gillian Wearing (Dancing in Peckham), Constantin Brancusi, and Belgian artists such as Lili Dujourie, Chantal Maes, Gert Robijns and Leon Vranken. Inspired by a quote from Edgar Degas it focuses on the dynamic relationship between artist and model, combining works from both modern and contemporary artists. There are innumerable other ways one could compose an exhibition around this central and rather vague theme, and of course this modest museum was limited in its choice of the works it could present, but nevertheless: elegant exhibition.

The boy, the baby, the rock or the car crash? Which one will I take home? (’45.000 affiches’, Michel François, MAC’s)

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If I would have been one of the museum guards at MAC’s, I would have had bets going on with my colleagues on what type of visitor is taking what kind of poster. Fashionably dressed art aficionado? He’ll take the one with the woman and the sunglasses. Mother with a stroller? She’ll go for the one with the baby belly. Wonder what I’m talking about? 45.000 affiches (1994-2011), by Michel François, an exhibition that turns watching art (posters) into a slightly different experience (through January 29; at the Grand-Hornu site, near Mons). Each of the 45 pictures by this Belgian artist, made throughout his career, has been printed on 1.000 copies. So everywhere you go, you’ll find stacks of large posters. And each visitor is allowed to take one of those 45 prints home. While looking at them, you wonder: which one? Strange how it makes you experience these works of art in a totally different way. Or is it just me, chronically unable to make decisions?

What’s your ‘Angle’? Salva Sanchis’ open invitation to look, listen and think

Sometimes, it all depends on you. As a spectator. On the work you are willing to do, in your mind. Does that imply that you’re dealing with a lazy performer on stage? Not necessarily so. Take Salva Sanchis, who used to be part of AT De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas (co-choreographer for Desh (2004) and Love supreme (2005)). He has certainly done his homework for Angle: a performance as an investigation into the perception of dance. How do we, as an audience, look at a piece and what might influence the way we perceive it? In Angle (premiere at Kaaitheater, Brussels) Sanchis offers you several elements: dance, live music (short piano pieces played by Yutaka Oya) and some ‘thoughts’. It’s up to you to link them. Or not. A cerebral approach that will not be to everybody’s liking, but I was charmed by it.

Even Charles Saatchi likes them: last chance to see Kati Heck’s monumental paintings (Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp)

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One of the things I had been meaning to tell you about, at the end of last year, was one of my favourite December shows: Kati Heck at Tim Van Laere Gallery. Saturday is your last chance to see Multikulti Sause, Hecks first exhibition at the gallery, so do drop by if you happen to be in Antwerp. Heck (32) was born in Düsseldorf, but moved to Antwerp when she was eighteen. Multikulti Sause is a reference to Angela Merkel’s statement ‘Multikulti is tot’ (multiculturalism has failed); Heck uses the word Sause (‘party’ in German) wanting to stress the fact that all kinds of people can have a great time together. Hecks canvases are monumental, and even if you don’t like her style (mixing all kinds of elements and influences), you’ll have to admit that they possess an intriguing quality. Even Charles Saatchi has discovered her art: he owns a couple of Hecks and will show them during an exhibition he has announced on his website, Painters’ painters. A new catalogue will be presented Thursday evening at Tim Van Laere.

If you say you love me madly, I’ll gladly, be there, like a puppet on a string: ‘Niks of Niks’ (Jan Decorte/Comp. Marius)

‘This looks like a puppet-show, the only thing missing are the curtains.’ One of the actors says it, rather casually, during Niks of Niks, but in fact it’s the perfect summary for the new play by Belgian theatre legend Jan Decorte, conceived in collaboration with Comp. Marius from Antwerp. It premiered at Kaaitheater (Brussels). Their radical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much ado about nothing (performance in Dutch) really resembles such a puppet-show: it’s a bunch of grown-ups performing Shakespeare as if they were still kids. It makes for a funny evening, but nothing more than that.

Mother Mary and a few balloons: group show ‘Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae’, Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels)

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Shall we start this year off on a lighter note? Although… a lighter note? A gallery show centered around an excerpt from the Ave Maria? Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae? Now and at the hour of our death? With works referring to religion and the virgin Mary? What I mean is this: visiting the new show at Galerie Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels, through February 11) certainly is a good, not too highbrow way to start your new year of gallery shows. It is a nice collection of 12 works of art, by Wim Delvoye, Kendell Geers, Thierry De Cordier, Thomas Lerooy, Adel Abdessemed, Jonathan Meese, Andra Ursuta and Yan Pei-Ming. All dealing with serious stuff, although not all of them are to be taken that serious, I guess. No sacred atmosphere during the opening, yesterday, that’s for sure: French fries were served to everyone. After all, this is Belgium, right?

Don’t panic. Your beloved Utopia Parkway hasn’t jumped ship. Au contraire. There were so many things I had wanted to tell you about at the end of last year, but then that damn flu hit me. Be assured, I’m working on Utopia Parkway: the comeback. For now, let me just thank you for following this blog in 2011. I wish you a wonderful 2012.

A white line going all the way up to the sky: Sol LeWitt’s ‘Spiral’ at Bonnefantenmuseum (‘Extended Drawing’, Maastricht)

Wonder what this is? It’s me and my camera, looking up at the top of the Cupola at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. Looking at a small part of maybe one of Sol LeWitt’s most amazing wall drawings: #801: Spiral. Standing in that Cupola, looking at what appear to be lots of parallel, horizontal white lines, but what is in fact one slightly sloping line covering all of those walls, gave me a really strange, zen-like feeling. LeWitt’s Spiral is part of Extended drawing (through January 15), a beautiful exhibition worth going to Maastricht for (as I had promised: my X-mas tip n°2). It focuses on the work of four artists who have made drawing central to their oeuvre: Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra. More pics after the jump.

Better than expected: ‘The Panamarenko Paradox’ (Knokke-Heist)

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Going to the Belgian seaside for a stroll, during the X-mas holidays? Then opt for Knokke-Heist, and combine your walk with a visit to The Panamarenko Paradox (through January 15), an exhibition with works by this renowned Belgian artist – now retired – linked to his recently unveiled fountain (The waving crabs, blog post here). I had my doubts about this exhibition, but I have to admit that is better than I expected it to be. I’m not sure about all those red walls, for they tend to make the drawings sort of disappear, but all in all the Paradox is a nicely presented, modest survey of the strange and poetic world of this one of a kind Belgian artist. A couple of Panamarenko’s bigger works of art, lots of drawings and some binoculars to take a closer look at all the details of the crabs outside. And even that restored Meikever (ladybug), which was stolen from SMAK (Ghent) and damaged in 2006. For those of you who missed the big retrospective in Brussels in 2005.

Yellow fumes and thunderous noise: Wim Catrysse’s triple-screen video ‘Outward-bound’

 

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It isn’t always fun to be a gallery assistant. I pity the people at VidalCuglietta (Brussels), for instance, having to bear that continuous, thunderous noise of Wim Catrysse‘s new video Outward-bound: a powerful triple-screen video shot over a 12-day period at a sulfur mining site on the flanks of the Kawah Ijen volcano in Java. The images are impressive, but the sound is quite overwhelming too. In his text about Outward-bound Dieter Roelstraete, the newly appointed curator of MCA, Chicago, draws comparisons to Steve McQueen’s Gravesend, 2001: A space odyssey and Caspar David Friedrich‘s paintings. Do drop by, if you’re in the Dansaert area, for your Christmas shopping. Outward-bound is on view till December 23.

How to make an audience lose all grip? By spinning them around (‘Birdwatching’, Benjamin Vandewalle & Erki De Vries)

 

Hold on a second: who’s moving? Is that dancer moving? Or are we? No, wait: we are not moving at all, and that dancer isn’t either, but the walls around us are. Nothing is what it seems to be, in Birdwatching, a performance by choreographer Benjamin Vandewalle and visual artist Erki De Vries, for an audience of just 15 people. They are all seated in a small booth on wheels that can be moved around. But all the walls the decor is composed of can be moved too. Throughout their performance Vandewalle & De Vries try to mess with your perspective on things and your sense of orientation. So: don’t watch it on a full stomach. Birdwatching, at Kaaistudio’s (Brussels) was the inofficial kick-off for Working Title Platform: four days of performances and much more at Bronks, Brigittines & Kaaistudio’s.

Welcome to my Wunderkammer: a gloomy cabinet of curiosities filled with Belgian contemporary art (Botanique, Brussels)

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Wait a minute: is this a work of art, or an object taken from a science museum? Or is it borrowed from the prop department of a Hollywood film studio? It is Antonio Nardone‘s intention to make you doubt. For his Wunderkammer (on view at Botanique, Brussels; through January 29) the curator/gallerist has assembled a varied collection of works by 20 artists living in Belgium. Among them some big names such as Jan Fabre or Wim Delvoye. The contemporary art exhibition is based on the concept of the cabinet of curiosities from the renaissance, and focuses on the imaginary worlds artists create, while toying around with elements from science and superstition. I have to say that a lot of the works in this Wunderkammer aren’t my cup of tea, but I admit that this is a great concept and that the gloomy room built specially for this exhibition looks amazing and the overall set-up is wonderful. Do pay attention to the soundtrack as well, with music by Pantha Du Prince, Amiina, Martin Denny, The Creatures and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Anonymously Yours invites you to gamble: buy a work of art without knowing who has created it

I guess buying contemporary art is always a bit of a gamble, but Anonymously Yours is putting it to its extremes. If you’re buying a work of art from this exhibition in Brussels, you won’t know the name of the artist. Indeed: those names will only be unveiled when the exhibition is over. Anonymously Yours is focusing on the diversity of contemporary drawing practices, with works of art by 82 artists from Brussels. Each work of art is offered for sale for 400 €; well below the market value for most of the participating artists, the organisers claim. Anonymously Yours is still on view for three days (16, 17 & 18 December) at Maison Grégoire (close the Royal Observatory, Uccle), in a house designed by Belgian architect Henry Van de Velde. It has been operating since 1995 as an independent arts centre and has been run by Bn Projects for the past three years. The project has been set up as a fundraising event. All the works can be viewed on the Anonymously Yours site too, here.

Mysteriously linking past and present: Lemi Ponifasio’s fascinating ‘Birds with skymirrors’

Your cheapest and best alternative to an expensive airplane ticket to New Zealand? Book a seat for Lemi Ponifasio‘s strangely beautiful dance performance Birds with skymirrors. It’s fascinating to see how the choreographer from Samoa comes from a totally different dance tradition and tries to link his world to what contemporary dance audiences are used to see. Tonight at KVS (Brussels), next week at deSingel (Antwerp).

Rumpelstiltskin has just left the building: Kenneth Andrew Mroczek at Elisa Platteau (Brussels)

Was it because I walked in after sunset? And that the fairytale atmosphere made even a bigger impression on me, in the dark, with just the soft, mysterious light of the lamps? I really had the impression I had ended up in a Brothers Grimm-created landscape, and that the fairytale characters had just left the building. Just some pieces of furniture, nice light, plants and other objects, in an exhibition inspired by a myriad of influences. Do pay a visit to Kenneth Andrew Mroczek‘s Blossom tides, blossom shadows, at Elisa Platteau & Cie Galerie (through January 1), if you happen to be in the centre of Brussels. And preferably after dark. The American, Brussels-based artist has just published a new book (edition of 200) as well, in collaboration with Brussels-based curatorial collective Komplot: Y€$, I see stars, ‘an inquiry into the daily-visual landscape of Brussels and beyond’.

How many people – and works of art – can you get in a tiny art gallery? (‘Vis à vis’, Rossi Contemporary, Brussels)

One of the funniest galleries in Brussels is without any doubt that tiny little Rossi Contemporary; somewhat off the beaten track, as it is situated in a shopping mall in the Bascule area. Put ten people in that small space and everyone feels uncomfortable. Besides the gallery there’s an upstairs room in the mall too (the Mezzanine) and  Rossi Contemporary uses some advertisement displays in the arcade as well as a Project Space. Now is a good moment to check out this gallery, as it presents three exhibitions (through January 21). Utopia Parkway-favourite Sarah Westphal is showing a couple of pieces at the Mezzanine, Klaus Verschuere is occupying the Project Space and at the gallery you’ll find a nice group show, Vis à vis, with works by some 30 (!) artists, such as Fiona Banner, Sean Edwards, Cildo Meireles and Lawrence Weiner. You really wonder how they managed to get them all on those two walls.

The cat who loved art: Milord watches over ‘The Visitor’ (HISK graduation show, Ghent)

And so I finally met Milord. Milord the cat. The temporary housekeeper at HISK, Ghent. The cat with the camera. The funny and fitting element Komplot-curators Sonia Dermience and Heidi Ballet added to The Visitor, their presentation of the work of the 12 laureates in that mansion-like building. The cat as a symbolic element linking all the artworks on display. HISK? That postgraduate course in audiovisual and visual art, providing 24 young artists from Belgium and abroad with a studio of their own for two years. I found it rather exciting to dwell through the darkened rooms of that big house. There’s something appealing to a graduation show such as The Visitor. Even though you might not like everything you see, you do see possibilities and struggles. You feel they are questioning things and trying to find their own ‘voice’, and you wonder where these artists might go from here. So, do visit The Visitor (till December 11). As you go to Ghent for Johan Grimonprez for instance, as it’s close to S.M.A.K..

The French State as an art collector: ‘Collector’ presents 150 works of art by 86 artists in Lille

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In for some Xmas shopping? Just across the border, for a change? And you want to justify your spending spree by thinking that you absolutely had to go there to visit an exhibition? Then I’ve got two suggestions for you. First: Lille (France). Until January 1 Tri Postal (real close to train stations Lille Flanders & Lille Europe) is presenting Collector: 6.000 m2, 150 works of art, by 86 artists, drawn from the vast collection (90.000 pieces of art) of the French Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP). One of the missions of CNAP is to enrich the national collections (of the state) and to promote modern art to a broader audience. Upon entering you might think that Collector is some sort of playground with an artistic touch, but don’t worry, it gets better on the other two floors. You’ll come across works of art by Maurizio Cattelan, Raymond Pettibon, James Lee Byars, William Kentridge and many others. Don’t go looking for Felix Gonzalez-Torres though. There’s a sign on the wall indicating where his work of art should have been, but all the sheets of paper have been taken away by now.

The wrong man in the wrong place. On visiting ‘Lineart’ (Ghent)

Just back from Lineart. With a headache. I had skipped the art fair in Ghent (Flanders Expo, through December 6) the last couple of years and I must say I was taken aback by the level of a lot of the galleries and the art they present. I hadn’t expected it to be Art Brussels, but I hadn’t thought it would remind me more of the Affordable Art Fair either. Sure, they do invite a couple of contemporary galleries (The border), but the way those have been given a spot in a dark alley on the fringe of that exhibition space? I was almost happy to stumble upon a couple of old black-and-white photographs by Belgian photographer Germaine Van Parys (1893-1983) and I was glad to hear that an exhibition on her work is planned in Brussels, in 2013. My advice? Skip Lineart. There’s just too many good exhibitions and gallery shows going on, right now.