Occupied: 50 years of cultural protest
Categories: Exhibition / Museums and art centers
Date: 28/05/2018 to 08/06/2018
Time: All Day
Location: Center for Fine Arts - BOZAR
Links: iCal - Google Calendar
To this day, May 1968 is still regarded as a cultural turning point, a symbol of freedom and revolt against old mores and institutions. Fifty years ago, the Centre for Fine Arts was the hotbed of artistic activism in Brussels. Artists and students occupied the central hall. Instead of waxing nostalgic about this contestation, BOZAR chooses to take stock of the global resistance movement in the sixties and look ahead. Which forms of cultural protest make a difference today? How can a cultural institution like BOZAR open up even more to the city and civil society? And which role do artists play in this?
At the time, the occupation of the Centre for Fine Arts was directed against art education and cultural policy in Belgium. Marcel Broodthaers – already – denounced the fact that the city had no Museum of Modern Art. A censorship evening was organised in the margin of the trial against Hugo Claus for public indecency and blasphemy. And the artists’ demands at the time still sound relevant today: more and broader participation, stimulating curiosity, investigation and a critical attitude to information, more interaction between the arts and other sectors in society. The directors and programmers heeded the protesters’ call. The transformation of the central hall into an events hall with a mobile platform for information and cultural action was an immediate consequence of the occupation.
BOZAR is handing all power to the imagination this year, with a comprehensive programme of exhibitions, concerts, debates, workshops and planned and unplanned encounters.
