Broadcast

Twelve years after the artist's retrospective at WIELS, Brussels, Francis Alÿs returns with the exhibition The Nature of the Game — a new, more comprehensive version of the exhibition he first presented at the Belgian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. In Venice, Alÿs presented a series of filmed children games made in Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland, in dialogue with a group of his discreet, small-format paintings. At WIELS, the artist adds several new films, including of children's games he recently saw in Ukraine. He confronts them with the film installation The Silence of Ani (2015). Curated by Dirk Snauwaert and Hilde Teerlinck, The Nature of the Game runs until January 7, 2024. (Photo: Children’s Game #26: Kisolo, Tabacongo 2021 [detail], in collaboration with Julien Devaux and Félix Blume)

In the exhibition "Blank. Raw. Illegible... Artists' Books as Statements (1960-2022)" at the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, curator, editor, and collector Moritz Küng brings together a wide selection of international positions dedicated to the blank book as an artistic medium. Among the 259 artists' books on display, Küng includes fine examples by Pierre Bismuth, stanley brouwn and Ian Wilson. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalogue published by Walther & Franz König, as well as a lecture performance by Küng entitled "Conceptual Art for Dummies".

As part of the Manchester International Festival, This entry, a new work by Tino Sehgal will premiere at the National Football Museum (June 29 to July 5) and the Whitworth gallery (July 7–9 and 11–16). This entry brings together a group of highly skilled people from various fields – a footballer, violinist, cyclist and a singer/dancer. It is also the first work of The Trequartista – Art and Football United, a two-year project co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Juan Mata whose aim is to bring together artists and footballers, inviting them into creative play.

Jan Mot's booth at Art Basel (CH) with works by Francis Alÿs, Robert Barry, stanley brouwn, Andrea Büttner, Rineke Dijkstra, Lili Dujourie, Mario Garcia Torres, David Lamelas, Ian Wilson (photo: Studio Shapiro)

Jan Mot is honored to announce the representation of Lili Dujourie, whose pioneering work is based on conjunctions of forms, materials and subjects. From her key early sculpture Amerikaans Imperialisme and her video and photographic work from the 1970s, to her sculptures in the 1980s and 1990s, to her more recent paper-based works, the dominant aesthetic codes of the time find themselves recast as rhythm, ellipsis and ambivalence. As Dujourie has said, "I want to indicate the duplicity (visible/invisible, present/absent) in its totality and make it experienceable." This search for what lies at the same time above and below the threshold of experience continues to drive her practice, as evidenced by Mimesis, the monumental bronze sculpture commissioned in 2022 by the City of Antwerp for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. A solo exhibition by Dujourie will open at Jan Mot on September 7. Works by the artist will feature in Jan Mot's booths at Art Basel (Basel, June 15-18) and Paris+ by Art Basel (Paris, October 20-22). (Photo: Rita Vereecke)

Manon de Boer's film Dissonant (2010) will screen on Friday 2 June, 4pm, at Cinéma Ermitage, Fontainebleau, as part of the 2023 Festival de l'histoire de l'art. Belgium is the guest country of this year's edition of the Festival, and the overarching theme is 'The Climate'. Every year since 2011, the Festival draws hundreds of art historians, museum professionals, artists, filmmakers, writers, curators, researchers and students to Fontainebleau for three days of events, including lectures, panel discussions, film screenings and exhibitions. (Image: Manon de Boer, Dissonant, 2010, still, 16mm film, colour, 10 min. 40 sec.)

Jan Mot is honored to have been selected for the 2023 edition of Paris+ by Art Basel, one of only seven international galleries to join the existing roster of participants in the main 'Galeries' section. This second edition of Paris+ by Art Basel will once again take place in the Grand Palais Éphémère from 20 to 22 October. Jan Mot's booth will include major examples of conceptual art by artists such as stanley brouwn, David Lamelas and Ian Wilson, along with rare pieces by French artist Philippe Thomas and selected works by the Belgian artist Lili Dujourie.

Kunstmuseum Basel presents The Heart of Relations, a major solo exhibition by Andrea Büttner. Since the early 2000s, Büttner “images” on such subjects as labour, poverty, shame, forms of coexistence, and belief systems that have had a far-reaching impact on society. The exhibition shows a confluence of narrative lines, from the benevolence of monastic communal life to coercive labour in biodynamic agriculture under National Socialism. The Heart of Relations runs until 1 October 2023. (Image: Andrea Büttner, Erntende, 2021, woodcut on paper, 118 x 119 cm, unique. Exhibition view, Blindsight — Manon de Boer in dialogue with Latifa Laâbissi and Laszlo Umbreit, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle [BE], 2022. Photo: Rik Vannevel.)

On the occasion of Endodrome, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's solo exhibition at Casino Luxembourg (on view till April 4), the artist and senior researcher Jean Botev are invited on Friday, March 17 to discuss the exhibition as well as the potential of Virtual reality (VR) and other simulated experiences in visual arts. The discussion will take place from 7 to 9 pm and will be moderated by Vincent Crapon. (image: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Endodrome, installation view at Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, 2023)

As part of the exhibition Exposé.es at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris a series of 5 conversations moderated by Elisabeth Lebovici and François Piron are organised. Marion Scemama, Ralf Marsault and Jan Mot are invited for the first part of this program called Les Pointes perché.es : Transmissions part 1, taking place on March 8 at 6:30 pm. The panel of speakers will talk about the way to keep the memory of a deceased artist alive, how to care for their work while questioning their legacy.

Children’s Games, 1999-2022, a solo exhibition by Francis Alÿs will open on February 11 at The Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, MUAC in Mexico City, and will be on view until September 17, 2023. Curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Virginia Roy, the exhibition presents a large selection of Children's Games, from the videos marking the beginnings of the series in the late 1990s to the most recent ones produced in 2022.

JIFA, the 16th International Days of Films on Art screenings, meetings and concerts held from January 20 to 29, 2023, in Musée du Louvre, Auditorium du Louvre – Michel Laclotte, Paris will introduce a selection of films, a concert and an artist talk by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Concert – Exotourisme, a musical project by the artist and the musician and performer Perez will be presented on Sunday, January 22 at 8:30 pm.
Christophe...définitivement will be screened on January 20 at 8 pm, Narrations obliques at 3 pm and Parc central at 5:30 pm, both on January 21 and Des corps dans lieux on January 22 at 3 pm.
(Image: Exoportrait, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster © Giasco Bertoli).

Touches of Games, a solo exhibition by Francis Alÿs will open today December 16 at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei. Alÿs will present a selection of video projections. In his curatorial statement, Chien-Hung Huang describes how "in the freedom of game, "children “come into contact” with the environment, skills in handling objects, and the mastery of interacting with their friends. Alÿs’ arrangement and camera lens in particular highlight the “role-playing” and “action decision” within a group, which is a sort of “politicalness” that comes naturally with the game. The “game” suspends all the limits of reality and allows them (and even us) to draw lines and cross them." The exhibition is part of the 2022 Kuandu Biennale Time of the Art Society: How to Become Indi-genous? and it will be on view until March 12, 2023.

The exhibition BREATHING at Hamburger Kunsthalle (DE) on view from September 30 till January 15 will present a selection of works by Joachim Koester. This large-scale exhibition on the theme of breathing in the art of the Old Masters and the present day explores the many different facets of the act of breathing and its representation. The selected works by Joachim Koester were exhibited at the gallery on the occasion of his 2021 solo exhibition The Invisible Index. They come from the series From the Secret Garden of Sleep composed of photographs and microscope scans of several strains of home-grown marijuana which reflect a sub-genre of plant photography and point to the history behind the otherworldly appearance of modern cannabis. (Image: Joachim Koester, Cannabis SEM #3, 2019, silver gelatin print, 62 x 55 cm)

Andrea Büttner is taking part in the exhibition YOYI! Care, Repair, Heal on view from September 16 till January 15 at Gropius Bau in Berlin. This group exhibition whose title comes from a ceremonial song, dance and coming together central to Tiwi culture gathers the works of 26 artists and collectives. Through video works, installations, paintings and performances, the invited artists address issues such as the politics of health, the resilience of Indigenous knowledge systems, forms of kinship, fair land use and its distribution, decoloniality and the rights of the non-human, all entangled with various concepts of care, repair and healing.

Newspaper no. 133 is now online.

Jan Mot is pleased to announce that Francis Alÿs will receive the Museum Ludwig’s 2023 Wolfgang Hahn Prize. The award provides for an exhibition of Alÿs’ work at the Cologne museum in the autumn of 2023. The institution will also acquire his work for its collection. 

“Of course I am much honored, and in these polarized times, receiving such an award is significant and invigorating, as it makes me feel that there is some coincidence of my own preoccupations and the public’s, and that a dialogue is possible,” — Francis Alÿs

You can now purchase two new publications by Francis Alÿs on BY ASSOCIATION website: Francis Alÿs first published in 2007 is now available in its second expanded edition. A fully updated artist's first comprehensive monograph contains essays by Russell Ferguson, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Jean Fisher and Michael Taussig.

The second publication - Francis Alÿs – The Nature of the Game is the official publication of the Belgian pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, curated by Hilde Teerlinck. The richly illustrated book contains Alÿs’ ideas and sketches he compiled in preparation for the Children’s Games, long-term projects which are now presented at the pavilion. It lets us glimpse into the engine room of his artistic practice, revealing key elements of his filmic poetics. An essay by the ethnographer and filmmaker David MacDougall embeds Alÿs’s observations of children’s play in the contexts of childhood studies as well as the history of ethnographic documentary film. 

Remai Modern presents three works by Tino Sehgal that span the breadth of his practice: Yet untitled; This Situation (solo); and This Success/This Failure. Yet untitled is enacted by: Liz Kinoshita and Erik Nevin with local dancers: Peace Akintade, Promita Das, Kirk Ford, Aunya Jayde, Mitchell Larsen, Annika Lessing, Bryn Rawlyk, Dean Stockdale, Tatum Wildeman and Megan Zong. This Situation (solo) is coordinated by Julia Simpson and enacted by Laurel Beyer, Cody Brayshaw, Jaron Francis, Paxton Francis, Jordan Hansen, Danica Lorer, Mannie Mirzaei and Narges Porsandekhial. The artist has also curated a selection of sculpture from Remai Modern’s collection, on view in the museum’s atrium and Connect Gallery. The exhibition is on view until September 5, 2022 at Remai Modern, 102 Spadina Crescent East, Saskatoon SK S7K 0L3, Canada.

Francis Alÿs' work is part of When Faith Moves Mountains, a major group show presented on the occasion of the reopening of the PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv), 144 days after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. The exhibition, whose title comes from the large scale project conducted by Alÿs in 2002, brings together works chosen from M HKA/the collection of the Flemish Community and focus on Ukraine as a country open to the world. (Image: Francis Alÿs)

New episodes of Asi sí, Mario Garcia Torres' podcast are now available on Spotify. Questions like 'what is this work of art about', 'can you explain it' are addressed by the artist about his own work while posing the same questions to other artists friends. For these two new episodes, he interviewed Urs Fischer who's currently presenting a solo exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City.

The Future Should Always Be Better, Sharon Lockhart's work from 2021 is currently on view until July 31 on the façade of the Pałac Kultury i Nauki (PKiN) in Warsaw, as part of the "Plac Defilad" project curated by Paulina Olszewska. Created during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the work was a response to the situation of isolation and closure as well as the inability to participate in social and cultural life. The neon sign was hanging in Hanover on the facade of the Kestner Gesellschaft art institution. Thus, residents walking around the city could enjoy art while staying in the space available to them. Two years after the first presentation, the slogan by Sharon Lockhart takes on a new meaning, added by history itself. Presented in the public space, the work inspires reflection, both in the context of individual stories as well as collective social and political narratives. (Image: Sisi Cecylia)

Newspaper no. 132 is now online.

Jan Mot's booth at Art Basel (CH) with works by Francis Alÿs, stanley brouwn, Andrea Büttner, Manon de Boer, Rineke Dijkstra, Mario Garcia Torres, David Lamelas, Edouard Merino, Lawrence Weiner, Ian Wilson (photo: Studio Shapiro).

Manon de Boer's solo show Down Time will take place at Kunsthal Aarhus (DK) from 3 June till 7 August 2022. The exhibition will present the series From Nothing to Something to Something Else (2018–2019) which features a group of young adults between the ages of sixteen and twenty. The artist does not give them any systematized scenario or instructions for producing the work but simply invites them to play music, dance and spend time together. All three films explore the time span between the already and the not yet, the time of potentiality. The three films are presented along with The Untroubled Mind (2016) in which de Boer observes and films her son’s playful constructions at home over a period of 3 years, setting the duration of each shot at 20 seconds, the length of time one can film with a Bolex 16mm camera when winding it manually. (Image: Manon de Boer, Caco, João, Mava and Rebecca (From nothing to something to something else, part 2), 2019, HD video, color, sound, 48 minutes, film still)

The documentary Christophe… définitivement (2022, 1h26) directed by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Ange Leccia was officially selected by the Festival de Cannes. The world premiere of the intimate and musical documentary about the French singer will take place on 25 May in Cannes, on the Macé beach, as part of the 2022 Cinema de la Plage lineup. The artists and director will be present and the projection will be followed by a giant karaoke hosted by Aline Afanoukoé.

Newspaper no. 131 is now online.

Following his recent solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Pierre Bismuth will open an iteration of Everybody is an artist but only the artist knows it at West Den Haag (NL) (25/03 - 10/07). The presentation and catalogue, which title alludes to Joseph Beuys' famous statement ‘Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler’ were created together with the Centre Pompidou. The show at West Den Haag varies widely in form, including new productions such as a culinary collaboration with Asad Raza, as well as Bismuth's readymades, photographs, flags, videos, food and even a modified car that once belonged to a famous Belgian art collector. Visitors can taste a new chocolate with a ‘decolonial’ flavor, specially manufactured for the Dutch public. Bismuth stimulates different senses and his work becomes fantasy reality. The coherence is in the way meaning and poetry can be produced from the most mundane activities. Without necessarily wanting to be innovative, and with a strong awareness of his numerous influences, Bismuth has built up a large body of work in which deconstruction of the norm is the way to influence reality and perception of it. 

1. Jan Mot participates in ARCOmadrid (23/02 - 27/02) with a solo presentation of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, featuring the recent installation Astrocytes (2021). The gallery was invited to the fair's commemorative section, ARCO40 (+1) Anniversary, a programme made up of galleries selected by María Inés Rodríguez, Francesco Stocchi and Sergio Rubira.

Opening on February 13th, Blindsight (2022) for which Manon de Boer and Latifa Laâbissi collaborated furthermore with Laszlo Umbreit will be on view at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens until May 22nd. In addition to the extensive sound installation, the show will include works by artists such as stanley brouwn, Andrea Büttner, Lygia Clark, Marlene Dumas, Valeska Gert, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Agnes Martin, Louise Lawler, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Joëlle Tuerlinckx who all shaped Manon de Boer’s practice. The starting point of this sound installation is de Boer and Laâbissi's continuous dialogue about the numerous voices that inhabit their thinking and bodies. During a long process of exchange and ‘cannibalizing’, the performance Ghost Party (1) (2021) was created that further lead to the production of the film Ghost Party (2) (2022) as well as sound installation Blindsight (2022). While Ghost Party (1) & (2) are currently presented in their duo show at the Frac Bretagne in Rennes (FR) (until 15/05), the film will have its Belgian premiere at the Cinematek in Brussels on March 1st.

Newspaper no. 130 is now online.

As part of Everybody is an artist but only the artists knows it, Pierre Bismuth's solo exhibition on view until February 28th at Centre Pompidou, the artist will give a talk at the museum on January 13th, at 7pm (in French, Petite Salle, free entry). Pierre Bismuth will be discussing with Jean-Pierre Criqui, curator of the exhibition, Pauline Mari, art historian specialized in the links between cinema and the fine arts as well as with Hans Theys, philosopher and art critic. The evening will be punctuated by an intervention of Mathilde Serrell and her guest Victoire Finaz de Villaine, expert in chocolate and member of the French Academy of Chocolate and Confectionery.

The Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection in Paris will present Exotourisme, a musical project by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and the musician and performer Perez on December 3rd, 9.30-10.30 pm. Their artistic collaboration that began in 2017 is inspired by the film Blade Runner and the French Cold Wave of the 1980s. 

Manon de Boer will present 4 of her films (Attica, 2008 - Dissonant, 2010 - On a Warm Day in July, 2015 - One, Two, Many, 2012) this Friday 19 November, at 7 pm as part of LOOP Festival in Barcelona. The screening will be followed by a discussion between the artist, Pascale Cassagnau and Pascale Pronnier.

We want to spread the word about the Gallery Climate Coalition's upcoming conference: Decarbonising the Art World taking place at the Barbican in London on Nov. 24th, 2021, 9.30 - 13.30 GMT (and available online).
In the first panel discussion, GCC Co-Founder Louisa Buck will speak with artists Fiona Banner and Haroon Mirza, cultural historian and inaugural director of V&A East, Gus Casely-Hayford, Founder of the Serpentine's General Ecology project, Lucia Pietriosti, and Frontline Conservation Specialist and Founder of Synchronicity Earth & Flourishing Diversity, Jessica Sweidan about the value of collaboration, the potential for art to inspire social and ecological change, and the art world’s responsibility to address such issues as the impacts of capitalism and colonialism, the climate crisis, and social injustice.
An array of speakers from across the industry will join for the second talk on ‘Taking Action’. Moderated by V&A Sustainability Lead Sara Kassam, the panel will feature GCC’s Environmental Advisor, Danny Chivers, Director of Nottingham Contemporary, Sam Thorne, GCC Co-Founder and Gallerist, Kate MacGarry, and Sustainable Conservation and Restoration Specialist, Kim Kraczon. The contributors, who have hands-on-experience of environmental action, will discuss the practical measures the art world can take to improve sustainability and lower our collective carbon footprint, based on GCC research and data. The panels will be followed by a reading from Ben Okri.

Newspaper no. 129 is now online.

The Hunter College Art Galleries are presenting Life as Activity: David Lamelas (03/11-18/12), an exhibition marking David Lamelas’s first solo show in New York in more than a decade. It brings together sculpture, film, and photography made across many decades and locations. Among others, Situación de cuatro placas de aluminio (Four Changeable Plaques) (1966), Limit of a Projection (1967), The Violent Tapes of 1975 (1975), and two films, The Desert People(1974), and The Invention of Dr. Morel (2000). Showcasing the ways in which Lamelas makes us aware of how the stories we tell ourselves are shaped by encounters with space and time, all of these works invite us to participate inscenarios in which container, contained, observer, and observed become blurred. On the occasion of the exhibition, a publication has been produced including essays and previously unpublished materials from the artist’s papers. The catalog is available for purchase via University of Chicago Press.

Francis Alÿs. As Long as I’m Walking (15/10-16/01) at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne (CH) presents an overview of the artist’s video work of the last thirty years, with an emphasis on one of the central themes in his practice, namely walking. Through his seemingly insignificant walks, Francis Alÿs not only reimagines the city, he also creates narratives, spreads rumors, maps the social fabric of the place through actions that are sometimes short sometimes carried out over long distances or many hours, by turns dragging, pushing or carrying an accessory that stands in for a clue to reading the fable spun by the body in motion. While Francis Alÿs figures as a protagonist in most of his early videos, he moves behind the camera in a series of works begun in 1999, the Children’s Games or in Reel-Unreel (2011), one of the core works to come out of his explorations in Afghanistan. They are featured in the Lausanne show along with paintings and works on paper. A catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition: Francis Alÿs. As Long as I’m Walking, Nicole Schweizer (ed.). With texts by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Luis Pérez-Oramas, and Judith Rodenbeck, and an introduction by Nicole Schweizer. Co-ed. Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts of Lausanne and JRP Editions, Geneva, 2021 (2 editions FR. and EN.).

Everybody is an artist but only the artist knows it, Pierre Bismuth's first solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris, will open on October 20th and will be on view until February 28th. The title of the exhibition is a paradoxical reinterpretation of a famous statement by the German artist Joseph Beuys (“Everyone is an artist”). It brings together emblematic works alongside others made specially for the occasion. Two new works in particular mark this exhibition: the Saab automobile that once belonged to a great collector of conceptual art, in which the upholstery has been entirely redone and now features the names of the artists included in said collection. The second work, Pierre Bismuth - Chocolat au lait pour amateur de chocolat noir (2021) is based on the artist’s recipe and freely available for visitors to take. “The bachelor [meaning the artist himself] makes his own chocolate”, wrote Marcel Duchamp in the early 20th century. Pierre Bismuth, following in the footsteps of artist-cum-chocolate-makers such as Ed Ruscha and Dieter Roth, is perpetuating this blend of art and cocoa. An exhibition catalog will be published for the occasion, tracing the artist's vast œuvre and including an interview with Jean-Pierre Criqui as well as texts by Bernard Blistène, Marie-José Sondeijker, Dessislava Dimova, Dieter Roelstraete and Asad Raza. 

Dans les oreilles de… Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, a podcast proposing an immersion in the musical universe of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, is available now on Radio Nova (FR).

Textiles and books from the collection of Seth Siegelaub / Egress Foundation will be included in the exhibition EURASIA − A Landscape of Mutability opening at the M HKA in Antwerp this week. The exhibition seeks to map innovative practices and exchanges that reflect the plurality of cultures, collaborations and conceptions of Eurasia (08/10/2021 - 23/01/2022).

Jan Mot's booth at Art Basel (CH) with works by Francis Alÿs, Pierre Bismuth, stanley brouwn, Andrea Büttner, Mario Garcia Torres, Joachim Koester, David Lamelas, readymades belong to everyone®, Vonna-Michell and Ian Wilson (photo: Studio Shapiro).

Announcing the launch of BY ASSOCIATION!

BY ASSOCIATION is a collaborative webshop founded by Jan Mot and Hollybush Gardens. Informed by the galleries’ programming, the webshop offers the discovery of artworks and artist publications that are available for purchase. BY ASSOCIATION is conceived in tandem from and for dialogue, hosting events, projects and guest galleries (by-association.online).

Newspaper no. 128 is now online.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster is working on an immersive, supernatural and sensory environment to be inaugurated at the Serpentine Galleries in London in Spring 2022. The artist imagines a Sensodrome for the Serpentine. Will it be speculative and visual fiction? What if an astrobleme became a Sensodrome in the middle of Hyde Park in 2022? Is a Sensodrome a place to stimulate our somatosensory system – a maison de rendez-vous? – a meeting point? Is it a mutant place contributing to the invention of new technologies of consciousness? What if aliens were in love with us? Would it change our relation to our planet and its lifeforms?

On July 27th, 5 pm EDT Mario García Torres along with the Director of Kunstinstituut Melly Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, President of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo Eugenio López Alonso, Chief Curator of Museo Jumex Kit Hammonds and artist Melanie Smith will talk about contemporary art in Mexico over the past 20 years. The conversation that is part of Artforum at Sotheby's live virtual discussions, will start with a discussion of Normal Exceptions, a new exhibition presented at Museo Jumex and further explore questions of cultural identity and the Mexican diaspora, Mexico’s influence over artists’ practice, how Museo Jumex has helped foster emerging artists in Mexico, and the reception of Mexican art by the wider world, both past and present. 

KW Berlin presents the work "the relationship between your body length and the length and width of the floor, each wall, and the ceiling of this room = 1 : x, 1 : y, etc." by stanley brouwn.
Simultaneously works by readymades belong to everyone® and Ilmari Kalkkinen are included in the group exhibition Zeros and Ones at KW which investigates the ways artists operate within their surrounding institutional structures and furthermorese includes Lutz Bacher, Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda, Hanne Darboven, Jana Euler, Jef Geys, Tishan Hsu, Silvia Kolbowski, Pope L., Louise Lawler, Carolyn Lazard, Lee Lozano, Henrik Olesen, Sarah Rapson, Margaret Raspé, Ketty La Rocca, Sturtevant, Otto Wagner, and Martin Wong. Both exhibitions are on view from July 3th to August 8th.

Works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tino Sehgal are part of the inaugural exhibition at the Parc des Ateliers, home of the LUMA Foundation in Arles (FR). The foundation aims to collapse the boundaries between art, culture, human rights and environmental issues. This Element by Sehgal was commissioned for the space, while Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster is presenting Endodrome, a virtual reality environment, shown at the Venice Biennale in 2019. The Library on Fire which is a new commission by Gonzalez-Foerster and Charles Arsène-Henry will be inaugurated in September. (Photo Adrian Deweerdt)

The Gallery Climate Coalition is launching a digital events series Conversations on Climate with a lecture by Tino Sehgal and Louise Höjer on June 8th, 6 pm (CET). Sehgal and Höjer will talk about outdated institutional habits, sustainable modes of exhibition-making, and travelling overland. As part of the event Oliver Evans (Senior Director at Maureen Paley, member of GCC travel subcommittee) will discuss his experience of sustainable forms of travel.

Newspaper no. 127 is now online.

In its May-June issue De Witte Raaf publishes a conversation with Seth Siegelaub entitled Activist ja, maar niet als kunstenaar (NL) that took place in Brussels in 2012.

Jan Mot participates in BXL x EMERGENT, presenting work by Francis Alÿs, Andrea Büttner, Manon de Boer and Mario Garcia Torres.
BXL x EMERGENT, which opens this weekend (08-09/05, 2-6 pm), is a collaboration between 10 Brussels galleries, presenting work at Emergent in Veurne. The project creates an opportunity for a live encounter between art, public and gallerists who will be personally and safely welcoming visitors during the opening weekend. The exhibition will be open on Saturdays and Sundays until 06/06, 2-6 pm).
Participating galleries: Ballon Rouge Collective, 
Dépendance
, Dvir
, Harlan Levey Projects
, Jan Mot
, La Maison De Rendez-Vous, 
Meessen De Clercq, 
Stems Gallery
, Super Dakota, 
Waldburger Wouters.

Caption: Andrea Büttner, Phone Etching, 2015, etching, framed, 212 x 113 cm (paper), 218 x 118,5 x 5 cm (frame), unique.

Within the framework of the exhibition David Lamelas Far, America, opening next July, the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC), in Santiago de Compostela (ES), published the re-edition and translation into Spanish and Galician of a historical work by David Lamelas –his book Publication (1970). Publication is a key work of Conceptual art representative of the introduction of oral and written language in the context of the visual arts, as well as of "artist's books" created at that time, which played a fundamental role in the so-called "dematerialization" of the artwork.
This re-edition happens exactly fifty years after its first print in London, and integrates a series of proposals from artists and critics such as Robert Barry, Daniel Buren, Ian Wilson and Lucy Lippard, together with the previously unpublished contribution by Marcel Broodthaers.
CGAC organised a publication launch with David Lamelas, Mario Garcia Torres and Pedro de Llano which is available online.

Jan Mot is participating in Art Basel Online Viewing Room: Pioneers with the presentation Seth Siegelaub: How is Art History Made? focusing on works by trailblazing artists who have been part of Seth Siegelaub’s projects: Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Rosemarie Castoro, Hanne Darboven, Douglas Huebler, Robert Huot, Joseph Kosuth, David Lamelas, Lawrence Weiner and Ian Wilson. The VIP opening starts on 24/03 at 2pm (CET) and will be followed by public days 25/03-27/03.

Image above: Joseph Kosuth, Titled (A.A.I.A.I.) (white), 1967.

Newspaper no. 126 is now online.

In early December 2020 the gallery launched a public campaign to save a major public work by David Lamelas, Quand le ciel bas et lourd (1992) situated in the park of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Due to a mistake in the planning of a new entrance for the museum that is currently under renovation, it had become unavoidable to move the work.  Last summer the Flemish authorities regrettably withdrew their initial support to rebuild the piece on the same site and the existence of the work is now seriously threatened. Demolition of the piece is scheduled for March 22. 

A first letter by Lamelas from September 2020 sent to Jan Jambon, Flemish minister of Culture, asking him to revert his decision remained unanswered. Therefor the gallery decided to launch a campaign asking people to co-sign the artist’s letter. By the time the letter was resent to the minister (December 16) 840 artists, curators, museum directors, critics, gallerists and art lovers from Belgium and all over the world had signed it.

Please click here to read the letter to Jan Jambon, the list of co-signatories, the reaction from Bart De Baere, director of the M HKA who owns the piece, the reaction from the gallery and artist to De Baere’s response as well as a growing list of press articles and general information on the work.

If you wish to show your support we still invite you to sign and your name will be added to the list. We will continue to update our website with any new developments.

Watch Practicing Sustainability, a conversation between Tino Sehgal, Marcela Sabino & Caitlin Southwick organised by Next Museum on Feb. 25th, 2021. Thinking about the museum of the future, sustainability certainly plays a big part. The awareness is present, but what can museums actually do to act sustainably? Should the quality of art be evaluated according to the criterion of environmental compatibility? What are the risks and chances of using emerging technologies in arts and culture with regard to climate change? 

Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee (BE) will be launching a brand new edition by Tris Vonna-Michell entitled No more racing in circles – just pacing within lines of a rectangle, produced as part of the ongoing project Solitude during Printed Matter' Virtual Art Book Fair starting Feb. 24th. This audiotape box set  is both a reflection on the impact of performing several narrations during a concentrated timespan and a selective representation and interpretation of the sound aspects in Tris Vonna-Michell’s artistic practice. The edition is conceived as a numbered box set with 4 audiotapes and liner notes by Jan Verwoert. Commissioned by Frans Masereel Centrum, in collaboration with Mount Analogue.

On this occasion besides the world premiere of the new edition, a new video work by Tris Vonna-Michell contextualising his participation in Solitude, as well as individual practice, will be launched on YouTube. 

Today, February 18th, 2021 at 5pm (CET) Rineke Dijkstra will receive the Johannes Vermeer Award 2020, the Dutch state prize for the arts. The ceremony will be live-streamed on youtube. According to the jury chaired by Andrée van Es, Rineke Dijkstra makes a major contribution to the international prestige of Dutch visual arts with her work. The jury calls her portrait photographs and video installations unique in the world. In its summary, the jury says the following: “This work is for eternity. Few artists have been given the talent to create these types of images.”

(image: Rineke Dijkstra, Arden and Miran, London, February 16, 2020, 2020, inkjet print, 135 x 103,5 cm (image), 159 x 127 cm (frame), edition of 10)

The film by Manon de Boer An Experiment in Leisure (2016 -  2019) is available for online viewing in the context of the inauguration of Artica Writings 2021, which is a curated series of texts aiming to influence critical thinking around our oceans and the urgent issues related to ocean health, knowledge and policy. In An Experiment in Leisure excerpts of texts by psychoanalyst Marion Milner (1900-1998) on themes such as concentration, the body, repetition and daydreaming are combined with meditative shots of artists' working spaces and Norwegian coast. 

Newspaper no. 125, January 2021 is now online.

Printed Matter, Inc. is organising a conversation on the book Seth Siegelaub Better Read Than Dead. Writings and Interviews 1964–2013 with co-editors Lauren van Haaften-Schick, Marja Bloem and Jo Melvin, along with artist James Hoff. This event will take place online on January 15th, at 5pm EST. Registration via the Printed Matter, Inc. website required.

Over 800 people co-signed David Lamelas' letter to the Flemish Minister of Culture Jan Jambon regarding the removal of the work Quand le ciel bas et lourd. The letter including the list of all co-signatories was resent to Jan Jambon today, asking him for a positive reconsideration of this dossier.
Click here to learn more about this initiative as well as to read the open letter by the director of M HKA Bart De Baere published on December 11th in reaction to our appeal as well as our reply to it (both to be found after the list of the co-signatories).

Jan Mot announces participation in Galleries Curate: RHE

In the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, an informal group of contemporary galleries from around the world came together to discuss how to navigate through the new challenges of the global crisis as it affected our artists, staff and businesses. As an expression of this unity we initiated GALLERIES CURATE.
GALLERIES CURATE: RHE (RHE from Greek for that which flows) is the first chapter of this collaboration, an exhibition and website themed around a universal and, we hope, unifying subject: water. RHE’s first project will launch on January 4th, 2021, with an online presentation of works by Francis Alÿs, Giovanni Anselmo, and Latifa Echakhch, extending the exhibition A buoy if not a beacon. Continuing in stages through May 2021, additional projects will be added by participating galleries each month. 
Following the inaugural exhibition GALLERIES CURATE plan to invite new participants and add further curated chapters to a global conversation of thematic relationships between galleries, artists, and their audiences.

The exhibition Beethoven moves at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna for which Tino Sehgal created a new work entitled This joy reopened to the public on December 7th.

Due to the ongoing renovation of the KMSK involving a new access to the museum, plans had been developed to move it slightly to the corner of the park surrounding the museum. Unfortunately the Flemish government withdrew its initial proposal that was accepted by the artist and now no longer wants to rebuild the work. A letter by Lamelas asking Jan Jambon, Flemish minister of Culture, to reconsider his decision has remained unanswered. We are therefor launching a public campaign inviting everyone to co-sign the original letter with the artist in the hope the work can be saved from destruction. Please click here.

On December 2nd at 8pm Andrea Büttner and Mason Leaver-Yap (KW Berlin) will have an online conversation on Büttner's newly published book Shame (Koening Books, 2020).

From shaming and shamefulness to shame-avoidance and shamelessness, the experience of shame influences our social behaviours, decision-making abilities, and desires. Shame determines what we show and what we hide. And yet, as an emotion that begs for its own concealment, what is the structure and appearance of shame? How does shame interact with the realm of the visible, and where does it surface in visual culture? 

Registration required via reservation@kw-berlin.de.

Tris Vonna-Michell participates in Solitude, an initiative of the Frans Masereel Centrum that commissions six new artistic projects, based on an alternative politics of experiencing art. Deliberately offline, each individual project offers an inspiring context to rethink the connection between art, the bodily and the social, and our mental faculties. Learning from the first half of 2020, and acknowledging our insatiable intellectual hunger, six artists are invited to develop a new work, which people can acquire physically and experience at home – as opposite to from home. In doing so, Solitude strengthens existing artistic practices that ask themselves where to for art, while providing at the same time multiple opportunities to cope with the enduring (self)confinement, without flattening out art. What space is left if seclusion – whether or not chosen by ourselves – is the only option? Other participating artists are Andrea Éva Győri, Taus Makhacheva, Amy Sillman, Nora Turato and Patrick Van Caeckenbergh.

The gallery became member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). The GCC is a non-profit organisation founded by a voluntary group of London-based gallerists and professionals working in the arts as an attempt to develop a meaningful and industry-specific response to the growing climate crisis and to facilitate a greener and more sustainable commercial art world. The aim is to provide guidelines and the necessary resources so that we can collectively reduce our carbon footprint by 50% over the next ten years (in line with the Paris agreement), as well as promoting near zero-waste practices.

The book Joachim Koester. Bringing Something Back (2019) was awarded the Årets vakreste Bøker / The Year’s Most Beautiful Books of 2020 by Grafill, the Norwegian Organisation For Visual Communication.

The book which was produced on the occasion of Joachim Koester's solo exhibitions at the Camden Arts Center and Bergen Kunsthall centres on a series of “meditation tapes”. The “tapes” explored the various twilight zones between waking and sleeping, and what can be brought back from such semi-darkened mental states in an exhibition context.
A visual essay, compiled by art historian, writer and curator Yann Chateigné, runs through the book and combines Koester’s own works with a selection of archival pictures that visually extends the discourse of the “tapes”, texts and artworks. Furthermore it features an interview with an interview between Yann Chateigné and Joachim Koester.

Authors: Yann Chateigné, Joachim Koester, Jelena Martinovic, David Toop
Editors: Mai Lahn-Johannessen, Steinar Sekkingstad
Design: Petri Henriksson / Blank Blank
Publisher: Walther Koenig
Softback, 166 pages, illustrated in colour and b&w, 200mm x 125mm

As a consequence of the new lockdown measures in Belgium, the gallery will be closed from 2 November till 14 December. Today you can still visit the exhibition 'A buoy if not a beacon' with works by Francis Alÿs, Giovanni Anselmo and Latifa Echakhch. 
The exhibition will be extended till 16 January. 

Newspaper No. 124, October 2020 is now online.

Sandlines, the story of history directed by Francis Alÿs has been selected for the International Competition of the 7th Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival, that will take place from November 20th to 29th, 2020. 

Saturday, October 3, 2020, from 7pm to 2am, Nuit Blanche is organised by the city of Paris, a contemporary creation in all its forms in public spaces, prestigious monuments and buildings that are little known or inaccessible in normal times. On this occasion, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster will take over the peristyle of the Palais Galliera with a sound installation entitled Promenade. The installation invades the peristyle of the Palais Galliera and offers the spectator a very special immersion, in a sound jungle, under a tropical rain. This ephemeral work is part of the Nuit Blanche's Right Bank journey that weaves its way from the Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris to the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, crossing the sound limbo, virtual wasps and temples of love in the gardens of the Champs-Élysées or New France, to the Palais Galliera and the esplanade and basin of the Palais de Tokyo.

Newspaper No. 123, August 2020 is now online. 

Newspaper No. 122, May 2020 is now online.