Brussels Art Summit

Categories: Exhibition / Museums and art centers
Date: 22/05/2019 to 29/05/2019
Time: 10 h 00 - 23 h 30
Location: Brussels
Links: iCal - Google Calendar

Brussels frequently plays host to European summits, and for a number of years there has been a certain sense of crisis to every summit. One member state is now limping towards the exit… The arts are not to blame. For years, artists have spoken in favour of a European Union founded on culture. After the words, it is now time for action: a Brussels-wide arts event that demonstrates artistic and political vigour. ‘Political’ in the etymological meanings of the Greek Politeia (society), Polis (city) and Politikos (civilian society). On the weekend of the European elections the culture houses of Brussels will hold a summit of the arts. It is not intended as a Eurocentric summit, but as an Art Summit that sees Europe as a cornerstone for global societal changes nurtured by the arts.

Through metaphorical and discursive interventions, this Art Summit proposes a constellation of perspectives to deconstruct and rebuild a multi-facetted European narrative in which the “other” now plays a central role. The aim is to witness how the most utopian ideas can take shape in a space or territory, from Brussels to Europe. Through individual or collective processes, the most diverse artistic voices will be gathered here.

Brussels Art Summit wants to be an impetus to a city-wide art festival that the Brussels art organizations are working on together in the run-up to 2030, year of a Belgian European Capital of Culture.

Race, Power & Culture
A Critical Look at Belgian Cultural Institutions
22–24 MAY 2019
Symposium – BOZAR

This symposium is part of the project DIS-OTHERING, on the deconstruction of ‘othering’ practices in European cultural institutions. The event aims to learn from the experience and perspectives of Belgian activists, academics, artists and other cultural institutions, while acknowledging the complexities and the pitfalls of racial power dynamics and diversity initiatives. The event aims to create dialogues that can bear new strategies on the necessary deconstruction of these dynamics.

Co-funded by: the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Partners: SAVVY Contemporary, Kulturen in Bewegung VIDC, Afropean London, Royal Museum for Central Africa and Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art

Multiple Transmissions
Art in the Afropolitan Age
25 May–18 August 2019
Exhibition – WIELS

The exhibition takes as its starting point the African artists who completed residences at WIELS between 2015 and 2019. Residencies put artists in motion around the globe, while simultaneously immersing them in one place for a definite period of time. Artists, and African artists in particular, have become successive locals of multiple places and cities: they have become “Afropolitan” artists. Featuring works by Nelson Makengo, Jean Katambayi, Georges Senga, Sinzo Aanza, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Emeka Ogboh, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum and Pélagie Gbaguidi.

In collaboration with: Africalia and la Biennale de Lubumbashi

Mirage, Déplacement — Olga de Soto
25 May 2019–19:00
Performance – CENTRALE for contemporary art

Olga de Soto moves her latest creation, Mirage, from the stage to the exhibition space, where she threads together interventions, scenes and actions in a dialogue with the works of visual artist Sophie Whettnall in her exhibit: La banquise, la forêt et les étoiles. The idea of a displaced image taking shape in the air is at the root of Mirage. The choreographer re-engages with her body and explores various modes of possible presences where body, dance and movement interact with the invisible.

Conversation about Etel Adnan
26 May 2019 –15:00
Talk – CENTRALE for contemporary art

On the occasion of the exhibition Sophie Whettnall / Etel Adnan, Sebastien Delot (Head of Heritage Conservation at LaM since 2017) will discuss the work of Lebanese American artist and writer Etel Adnan. Since the 1960s, Adnan has been making accordion-fold books, or leporellos, that meld visual and verbal observation, fusing the artist’s parallel practices in painting and writing as she transcribes poems and records unfolding landscapes and urban spaces.

Circus of Truth
29 May 2019: 18:00–21:00 (performances)
30 May–02 June 2019 (exhibition)
Performances & exhibition – BOZAR

Six international artists—Mira Calix, Andjeas Ejiksson, Gluklya (Natalya Pershina Yakimanskaya), Olaf Nicolai, Asad Raza, Sislej Xhafa—who had never worked together were invited to meet in Brussels for the first time in order to test a hypothesis—the possibility to create a single collaborative work of art. Not an easy task as it meant challenging not only the value of individual freedom in art but also existing notions of unity and collectivity. The result is Circus of Truth—a performative meditation on questions of truth, facts and information.

Coproduction: Stand Up for Europe
Executive Production: SPIN vzw