What’s that camel doing near the Royal Palace? A strange parade courtesy Pierre Leguillon, or: Teatrino Palermo on the move

I wonder what the Belgian king would have made of it, would he have opened a window of the Royal Palace, Saturday morning. A camel, carrying a puppet theatre? Near the palace, in the streets of Brussels? Many passers-by were wondering the same thing. What? It was a strange parade indeed, set up by Wiels, (SIC) and French (Brussels-based) artist Pierre Leguillon, in the frame of his Museum of Mistakes exhibition at Wiels (through February 22). The camel is a reference to the camel Marcel Broodthaers put in the lobby of the Palais de Beaux-Arts (Brussels) in 1974. The puppet theatre is a copy (courtesy Pierre Leguillon) of a miniature theatre made by Blinky Palermo (a friend of Broodthaers) in 1964. And where did the camel start his tour with the so-called Teatrino Palermo, on Saturday? Right: Rue de la Pepinière, where Broodthaers used to live, and also the place where the Belgian artist opened his alternative Musée d’art moderne in 1968. And where did the camel go to? Rue Ravenstein, where the theatre was exhibited in 1988, at Marie-Puck Broodthaers’ gallery. Yep: toying with references, concepts such as reproduction, re-enactment, movement and means of presentation… that’s Leguillon.

The man who sold his collection to MoMA (New York): ‘La collection qui n’existait pas’ tells story of remarkable Belgian art collector Herman Daled

A man sitting at an old desk. Three stacks of index cards. He puts a rubber band around them, and puts the stacks away in the lower drawer of his desk. ‘That’s my collection’, he says. It is the great opening scene of a wonderful documentary, about one of Belgium’s most remarkable art collectors. Herman Daled, now in his eighties, a friend of many conceptual artists. In 2011 he sold a big part of his collection to MoMA, New York. ‘Among the most significant acquisitions in the museum’s history’, MoMA director Lowry described the deal back then. La collection qui n’existait pas (The collection that didn’t exist), by Joachim Olender, tells Daled’s story. It premiered last week at Bozar, Brussels. In the audience: Tate director Chris Dercon, choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, MoMA’s Christophe Cherix, and of course, lots of people (young and old) from the Brussels’ art scene.

Much more than just some mussels

Planning on visiting the Royal Palace to take a look at those Michaël Borremans paintings? Why don’t you drop by at the Royal Museums Of Fine Arts as well then, as they are just around the corner. For the very first time they have their entire Marcel Broodthaers collection on display (until September 26). OK: the room is too big and the set up of the exhibition could have been better, but nevertheless… Each time I see a bunch of works by Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976), they always get my brain working. Broodthaers, of course, is much more than those mussels he is famous for. The weirdness of his art and the questions the Belgian artist raises by it, always trigger my mind. Even though his art often seems impenetrable and insipid. His works make me want to head straight for the bookshop and buy lots of art books and study some more.  (More info: here)