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.

Here today, gone tomorrow: first (pop-up) exhibition by Le Salon (Brussels)

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The fun thing about a thriving art and gallery scene? That big events always bring about smaller ones. That apart from the well-known you’ll see fresh and new things emerge too. Brussels Art Days, with almost 40 (!) participating galleries, was already a lot to take in. But for the adventurous art lover there was even more. Such as the first exhibition curated by Le Salon: a three-day pop-up exhibition in an uninhabited building, set up in collaboration with (SIC) (Brussels), Formcontent (London) and 1M3 (Lausanne). Le Salon is an online platform focusing on art from Brussels, presenting interviews, reviews and studio visits. You’ll find it here. They were smart enough to come up with the one thing the people from Brussels Art Days didn’t think about: a closing party for that busy art weekend.