The chronological and thematical exhibition reflects the broad range of the artist’s practice, with more than 85 drawings and paintings complemented by videos, collages, posters, murals, archive documents…

Haring’s work is ingrained in the (pop) culture of the 1980s, and the social themes he touches on are still relevant today: human rights, AIDS/HIV, racism, LGBTQI+, drug addiction.

At the exhibition’s fringes BOZAR presents a broad public programme which brings Keith Haring’s themes into the present day.

KEITH HARING

Keith Haring was a unique presence in 1980s New York, playing a key role in his generation’s underground counterculture and creating an immediately recognisable style. Best known for his iconic motifs, such as barking dogs, crawling babies and flying saucers, Haring’s paintings and drawings were politically charged and motivated by activism. His work as an AIDS/HIV activist and educator remains his most essential legacy. Elsewhere, he responded to equally critical and relevant social issues, contributing to nuclear disarmament campaigns, creating a famed Crack is Wack mural, and designing anti-apartheid posters. An openly gay man, he remains a figurehead for the LGBTQI+ community.

Haring expanded on wide-ranging legacies and influences from abstract painting, pop art, Egyptian hieroglyphs and calligraphy, to the work of New York graffiti artists and the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky. His singular, seemingly spontaneous style, was animated by the energies of the 1980s; from space travel and robotics to video games. The exhibition evokes the style and spirit of the time in rarely seen archival documents, video and photographs while Haring’s immersive ‘black light’ installation from 1983 presents fluorescent works under UV light accompanied by disco and post-punk electro music.

Dedicated to the creation of a truly public art that would reach the widest possible audience, Haring commented: ‘I remember most clearly an afternoon of drawing… All kinds of people would stop and look at the huge drawing and many were eager to comment on their feelings toward it. This was the first time I realised how many people could enjoy art if they were given the chance. These were not the people I saw in the museums or in the galleries but a cross-section of humanity that cut across all boundaries.’ He collaborated with Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat who shared his desire to unite high art and popular culture.

The exhibition also sheds light on the performative nature of Haring’s work, from his live chalk drawings on the New York subway to working with artist and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi who documented Haring’s practice. Haring went on to become a pop art icon of the era: he collaborated with Madonna, Grace Jones, Vivienne Westwood, and Malcolm McLaren, making sets and designs for videos and performances. He was also an active contributor to New York’s legendary Club 57, an underground party club and arts space, where he gave performances and organized exhibitions.

In the late 1980s Haring developed a love for Belgium, spending a productive summer in Knokke in 1987 where he created a solo exhibition in the Casino. It was also in this period that he created the large wall painting in the MUHKA in Antwerp.

Keith Haring’s career was concise, and on 16 February 1990 he died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 31. Haring expressed universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex, war and compassion to create a body of work that remains as relevant today as it was when it was made.

Keith Haring is curated by Darren Pih, Curator, Exhibitions & Displays, and Tamar Hemmes, Assistant Curator, Tate Liverpool. It is realised in collaboration with Tate Liverpool, the Keith Haring Foundation and in partnership with BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, and Museum Folkwang, Essen. After BOZAR the exhibition will tour to Museum Folkwang (22 May to 6 September 2020). It’s the second collaboration between Tate Liverpool and BOZAR, after the exhibition Yves Klein. Theatre of the Void presented in both institutions in 2017.

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The Jardin des Quatre Vents in Molenbeek, one of BAUKUNST’s projects nominated for the European Union Prize of Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, is a positive example of built environment. A schoolyard, previously disconnected from its surroundings and open mostly to children, is reshaped by urban necessity and the lived experience of local residents. The courtyard-cum-garden now offers the flexibility of serving both as a recreation place and, with the help of an awning, a shelter from the whims of weather. The new public space paves the way for new dwellers, enabling them to build their own response to it. To Adrien Verschuere, the founder of the architecture office BAUKUNST, it is important to “understand the value of a place as a sign…a sort of time capsule where imagination and memory are intertwined”.

The expressive capacities of architecture are central to the work of BAUKUNST. According to the British philosopher J.L. Austin words and signs do not merely have a descriptive function but enunciate performative utterances as well. Thoughts, perceptions, emotions, all on stage, engaging the audience in their play. So does the completed project, The Centre Sportif de la Fraineuse in Spa, which epitomizes the idea of theatricality in architecture.

The roof of the new building gives the impression of effortlessly floating above the base of a nineteenth-century neoclassical castle. They blend into a unified scenery, all the way preserving their solitude. Each structure performs its own role, and the mise-en-scène helps create a characterful environment.

The philosopher Gaston Bachelard argues that the ‘state of impermanence’ is superior to the ‘state of finality’ when we choose our location in space. The former encourages us to dream, to embrace the probable and hence allow new impressions enrich our experiences. The BAUKUNST exhibition echoes this longing for the hidden, for the comfort of imagination. It does not shut down reality, on the contrary, it redesigns it, by leading us on towards a public imagination where we can freely move around.

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Last weekend the third edition of Nuits Sonores & European Lab Brussels took place at Bozar. This is an urban festival born of the joint forces of BOZAR and Arty Farty. Four days (from Thursday to Sunday) of non-stop beat with a top-notch local and international line-up, numerous debates and plenty more.

The focal point of the festival was undoubtedly the BOZAR Takeover, on Friday evening. A combination of live performances, concerts and DJ sets in the beautiful and unique location of the Centre for Fine Arts. The evening brought more than twenty artists from all over the world together on three stages, turning BOZAR into Belgium’s biggest club for one night.

Every room of the labyrinthine Centre for Fine Arts was filled with beats and amazing light games. The main venue was the spectacular art deco concert hall (Henry Le Bœuf Hall) that for the occasion was converted into a huge dance floor. Between the names of the DJs spinning above the crowd in the royal box, there were: ڭليثر Glitter ٥٥, Dasha Rush, Octave One Live, and Paula Temple.

Henry Le Bœuf Hall during BOZAR takeover  – Credit Video: Simone Vespa

However, the Nuits Sonores were not just about partying, but also about talking and thinking. Club owners, artists and even philosophers had the chance to exchange ideas about club culture, activism and more. Also the artist-researcher Bogomir Doringer participated. After studying and filming dance floors all over the world and presenting his exhibition “Dance of Urgency” at Q21 in Vienna, the artist decided to continue his work at European Lab Brussels.

His project looks at the dance floor as a space for socio-political expression. According to him, the “Dance of Urgency” is a dance born of emotions that emerge at times of personal and collective crisis. It is a dance that empowers individuals and groups. The artist first moderated a debate on the topic and then he pointed his camera to the dance floor at BOZAR to integrate the Brussels party crowd in a live artwork.

The Nuits Sonores continued on Saturday night with The Loop, one of Nuits Sonores’ most impressive historical programmes. It is an exclusive musical journey in three locations in the vicinity of Brussels’ Canal: Kanal – Centre Pompidou, LaVallée & Be-Here. Local cultural operators collaborated with Nuits Sonores to give each venue its own individual musical atmosphere.

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Seven years after her death, Whitney Houston will appear again on the stage, this time as a hologram. BASE Hologram, which has already organized similar events for Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Maria Callas, has announced the dates of the tour “An Evening with Whitney Houston: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour.” In Brussels, the show is scheduled for March 12th at BOZAR.

The tour has been conceived in collaboration with the heirs of Whitney and it was staged by the choreographer Fatima Robinson, well known for her collaborations with Rihanna, Kanye West and Mary J. Blige.

On the stage, a band, a chorus and dancers will accompany all the biggest success of the star, in a remastered version.

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On the occasion of the Heritage Days in Brussels, the exhibition IncarNations will be exceptionally free of charge on the 15th of September. The collector Sindika Dokolo shows his collection of contemporary and classical African art to a broad public. It is in this spirit – art for everyone – that BOZAR will open the doors of the exhibition wide open.

Guided tours in the Centre for Fine Arts
In addition, a guided tour of the Centre for Fine Arts, a masterpiece and emblematic figure of the Art Deco style, designed by the architect Victor Horta, will be organised on 14 and 15 September.

Registration here

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Brussels Park will once again be home to the Brussels Comic Festival on 13, 14 and 15 September. In addition to the now staple giant-balloon parade, the Brussels festival will bring comic fans talks, exhibitions, shows, signing sessions and many other activities which everyone can enjoy.

The patron for the 2019 Prix Atomium is none other than Catherine Meurisse, a cartoonist at Charlie Hebdo for more than ten years and the author, most notably, of the graphic novels “La Légèreté” and “Les Grands Espaces”, published by Dargaud in 2015 and 2018, respectively. She will honour the Brussels Comic Festival with her presence during the Prix Atomium award ceremony on Saturday 14 September at BOZAR.

Here’s an overview of the exhibitions, talks and shows which span the festival weekend.

Exhibitions

“CHILDREN OF THE RESISTANCE”

It’s spring 1944, and an allied pilot is lost in occupied Belgium… Put yourselves in the shoes of a child from the Resistance so that you can help him get back to England so that he can get back to fighting!
This fun exhibition is based on the “Children of the Resistance” series by Benoît Ers and Vincent Dugomier. It has been put together especially for a young audience (8-12 years) and gives little ones an educational look at the main themes behind World War Two and the Resistance in France and Belgium, in order to help them understand them. A treasure hunt gives children the chance to step into the shoes of a member of the Resistance: throughout the exhibition, they must solve clues to help the allied pilot get back to England.

A co-production: Le Lombard and the Brussels Comic Festival (visit.brussels)

Venue: BELvue Museum

Dates: 7 August to 6 October 2019

Free

“THE SON OF TINTIN”

The “Son of Tintin” exhibition evokes the atmosphere of Doel and Rwanda, thanks to Jeroen Janssen’s original drawings.

This Belgian comic artist won the 2018 Adhemar Prize and, in this exhibition, he showcases his notebooks, which are both a real treasure and workshop. Inside them, he has written down the different stories that he has gathered during his investigations, along with sketches.

A co-production: the Brussels Comic Festival (visit.brussels) and Stripgids

Venue: BELvue Museum – Place des Palais, 7 – 1000 Brussels

Dates: 13 September to 22 September 2019

Free

“SPIROU AND BRUSSELS UNDER OCCUPATION”

This exhibition gives you the opportunity to venture into the world of Émile Bravo’s Spirou and the Second World War!

It creates a parallel between the “Hope Despite Everything” series and historical documents attesting acts of resistance from the Spirou Comic and from its editor-in-chief Jean Doisy. It gives you an opportunity to discover Émile Bravo’s most beautiful pages from albums from the “Hope Despite Everything” series, but also learn more about the Spirou Comic, which stopped being published during the Second World War for Resistance efforts. It’s also worth noting that the second volume of “Hope Despite Everything” will appear in the versions published by Dupois for the Brussels Comic Festival.

A co-production: the Brussels Comic Festival (visit.brussels), the Brussels Parliament and the Dupois and BIP publishers.

Venue: BIP (experience.brussels) – Rue Royale, 2-4 – 1000 Brussels

Dates: 13 September to 28 November 2019

Price: €4 adults / €3 seniors / €1 student / free under 6s – free from 13 to 15 September 2019

Talks

Authors, specialists, publishers and journalists put on a series of talks, meetings and round tables about the burning issues facing the world of comic books. Here’s an overview of what’s going on.

“BLAKE & MORTIMER” TALK

Meeting put on by the publisher Dargaud.

François Schuiten will take part in a special talk on the legendary duo, along the series’ various artists. It’s a unique opportunity to talk about Edgar P. Jacobs’ work and the influence that it still has today on comic strip artists. Questions will be answered on topics such as the original work, or the focus of this last chapter on Brussels. There will be a random audience-member draw and the winners will get to have an autograph from the authors after the talk.

Venue: STUDIO room at BOZAR

Date: Saturday 14 September at 2:00 pm

Free

“WOMEN’S VOICES” MEETING

Lili Sohn, Juliette Boutant, Thomas Mathieu and Aude Mermilliod provide a female account of the world. When women use comics as a platform to describe the world through their eyes.

Aude Mermilliod, working alongside the novelist Martin Winckler, will have the opportunity to break her silence on abortion, which is still a taboo subject and which she skilfully discusses in her album “I had to tell you about it.” Juliette Boutant and Thomas Mathieu will discuss the issue of sexism in our society, in light of the album “The Crocodiles”. Finally, Lili Sohn, author of “Vagin tonic”, will go into detail about how she deals with major female issues, as she humorously does in Mamas, a brief summary of deconstructing the maternal instinct. The meeting is put on by the publisher Casterman. It has been put together in collaboration with Ladyfest, Elle Belgique, Beabee and Touche Pas A Ma Pote.

Venue: STUDIO room at BOZAR

Date: Saturday 14 September at 4:30 pm.

Free

Show

“NOW THAT’S A COMIC!” – Bapt & Gaël, Baba

Show arranged in partnership with the publisher Lombard

A wild and really fun drawing battle featuring the famous Youtubers Youtubers Bapt & Gaël and Baba. Visitors will also be able to discover their new album “Now that’s a comic!” (published by Lombard), which will be available for the first time at the Brussels Comic Festival. But that is not all! A few lucky winners in a draw will be able to meet Bapt & Gaël and Baba, and enjoy a small snack with them after the show.

Venue: M Room at BOZAR

Date: Saturday 14 September at 3:00 pm.

Free

For more information 

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IncarNations presents an original blend of classical and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora in a dynamic setting. The exhibition includes a room on the ongoing recovery project around the Dundo Regional Museum, where a recently rediscovered flyswatter was put on display. The mask will now also be given a place in this room from Tuesday 23 July until the end of the exhibition (6 October).

This is a ‘Chihongo’ mask, from the Chokwe people of Angola. Masks of this type are traditionally associated with the mukanda initiation ceremonies.

Recovery Mission

The Congolese collector, art patron and entrepreneur Sindika Dokolo launched an ambitious recovery mission in 2014. The aim of this project is to track down pieces of art from the collections of the Dundo Regional Museum which disappeared during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) and return them to their country of origin.

Through the collective efforts in partnership with collectors, art dealers, auction houses, international researchers and experts, 13 works have already been recovered and returned to the Angolan government since the start of the mission. In this way Dokolo supports the commitment of African institutions to take the management of their heritage into their own hands.

Important sources for the detective work

An image of this mask was first published in 1956 by José Redinha, then director of the Dundo Museum.

The mask is also included in a work of reference from 1961, published by Marie-Louise Bastin, Emeritus Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She did pioneering work in classifying and documenting around 300 important works in the Dundo Regional Museum.

Finally, the archives of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren are another essential source in tracking down lost pieces, and research into the origins of the items is still done in close collaboration with the AfricaMuseum. The archives include an inventory of the ‘Bureau international de Documentation ethnographique’, with detailed cards giving accurate descriptions of 830 collection pieces from the Dundo Regional Museum.

Incarnations: Africa Art As Philosophy (28.06 – 06.10.2019)

South-African artist/curator Kendell Geers and Congolese art collector Sindika Dokolo selected together 150 works of art from Dokolo’s impressive collection. Their aim is to lead the visitor towards a change in the perspective on ancient and contemporary African art, by focusing on the spirituality that binds them.

IncarNations is at once a mix and exchange between classical and contemporary art from Africa and its diasporas. The masks, images and historic objects act as milestones, anchoring contemporary works in the ancient context of live creation.

The scenography, a vibrant compilation of image, sound and colour, evokes associations with the dynamic bustle of an African metropolis and underpins the vitality of the works on display.

The exhibition includes works by William Kentridge, Tracey Rose, Wangechi Mutu, Otobong Nkanga, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Ana Mendieta, Kehinde Wiley, Andres Serrano, Aida Muluneh, Mwangi Hutter, Hank Willis Thomas, Adrian Piper, Lubaina Himid, Roger Ballen, Zanele Muholi, Phyllis Galembo.

Practical Information

BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels
Open: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am > 6pm
Closed: Mondays

Tickets: € 10

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It won’t make the front page of the newspapers, but a conference of scientists is currently being held in Brussels. Although this year’s theme – string theory – is rather abstract for us, it has attracted prestigious names such as David Gross, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, Kurt Wüthrich, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Lars Brink, former Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics, and François Englert, Belgian winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The first Conference was held in 1911 at the Hôtel Métropole on the initiative of chemist, industrialist and patron Ernest Solvay. It brought together the greatest researchers of the time – Marie Curie, Henri Poincaré, Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein – to discuss the subject of « The Theory of Radiation and the Quanta ».

It was an opportunity for in-depth discussions about atoms, rays, black bodies and more. In 1913, they met at the Physics Institute founded by Solvay in 1912, but the war put a stop to the meetings; the Germans were excluded in 1921 and 1924, and even Einstein, who was known for his pacifism, was not invited. Science continued to progress and when Einstein returned in 1927 and 1930, he shook his peers by being unable to admit that « God plays dice » and forced them to take their deliberations further, further strengthening quantum theory.

These conferences have taken place in a three-year cycle since the Second World War: the Physics Conference, a year without a Conference and then a Chemistry Conference. And for 65 years, they have been possible thanks to the moral and financial support of Mrs Mimi Solvay.

This is another relatively unknown fact about the great names that make our country famous.

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Accessible, gripping conversations between art experts and magistrates, journalists, and professors of human rights will include you in the best dinner party conversation, showing you art in a new light. Learn how famous artists have considered basic human rights over the centuries and be amazed that the same issues – torture, justice, children’s rights, the death penalty, freedom of expression – are still being grappled with 500 years later.

10 different human rights are explored in 10 video conversations, each with one expert from the art world discovering a masterpiece with an expert from the world of human rights chosen by Amnesty Belgium.

The video series was the idea of Althea Williams, a former director at Amnesty Belgium and Geraldine Barbery from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. The video series which has just been launched will enable first time and seasoned visitors to the Fine Art Museum to share the mindset of the artist and experience his or her perception, while fast-forwarding to our present world and seeing its relevance.

The masterpiece The Judgement of The Emperor Otto explores the notion of Justice, with a magistrate from the International Court of Human Rights talking with an art historian. Their conversation addresses the question of equal access to justice, fair trials and the notion of violence in justice, all of which are vitally important today.

Another work explored in the Justice conversations is Susanna and the Elders, painted in 1567. They addressed the question of the abuse of power by authority, its destructive influence on the fabric of society and the role of the citizen in opposing it.

Freedom of Expression

The Death of Marat is a masterpiece by Jacques-Louis David, painted at the time of The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Marat, murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday, defends freedom of expression but, once in power himself, abuses that right, inciting hatred and is instrumental is sending many political opponents to their death. In David’s iconic painting, which can also be seen as political propaganda, Marat is depicted as an idealised martyr. The questions asked during this conversation concern the importance of freedom of expression: 1400 journalists have been assassinated in the past 25 years for their work and only 13% of the world’s population enjoys a free press today. And what are the limits to this freedom? Can you see Marat as a hero of the French Revolution, or can you see him as someone who abused his right to freedom of expression?

The 10 videos are free to download and are in French or Dutch with subtitles (English subtitles will be added during the summer months) and they are suitable for all ages and levels.

In addition, starting from September, on the first Wednesday of every month at 2pm there will be a tour by the museum guides.

To find out more about this, please click this link.

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Some would feel exalted at this sight. I feel confused, though curious enough to let myself challenged. Not for long. I try to look past it and focus on the nkisi sculptures from Congo in front of me. Hundreds of nails are hammered into the male figure, each one a prayer, a hope, a vow meant to defeat evil. The song playing in the background is comforting. I stop for a second to listen more carefully. My heartbeats in unison with the lively sounds.

Apart from the security guard who pops out unexpectedly next to me every ten minutes, I notice that I am alone at the exhibition. An aura of tranquility invades my world and in the same time heightens the presence of the other. It does help to see the world from another aesthetic view. To put on the other’s mask and explore your surroundings, engage in conversations, listen to the other.

Forget yourself for a while and remember the other.

Emmanuel Levinas, a French-Lithuanian philosopher, would say that when we encounter the other “face to face”, that is, when we experience the “living presence” of the other, we become responsible for the other, for the other’s existence. The Lumbu and Punu oval masks, decorated with white kaolin clay and almond-shaped eyes, invite us into an ‘Afrocentric’ world, expressive and reflective. Seemingly trivial objects in the Western world, such as a comb, take on a new significance to the Akye people in southeastern Côte d’Ivoire, who endow it with supernatural power. A world full of symbolism. The world of the other. Facing our own.

Sindika Dokolo, the Congolese collector, and the South African artist Kendell Geers have put together a fascinating exhibition that explores the beauty, essence and diversity of Africas’s art through themes like magic, power and desire.

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