For the second year, Art Brussels supports the KickCancer foundation – all proceeds from the sales will be donated to the foundation for research in order to beat childhood cancer
Art Brussels, one of Europe’s longest-running contemporary art fairs
Founded in 1968, in April the fair will move from the Tour & Taxis building, located in the city center, to the historic Brussels Expo, in halls five and six, built in 1935 for the Brussels International Exhibition. The new location will allow the twenty-five thousand visitors, who attend this event every year, to discover galleries and artworks in a renewed way.
As the managing director, Nele Verhaeren, explains, the ability to attract the audience depends, besides representing a qualitative offer, on the origins of the fair itself. Belgium has been characterized by a «high density of collectors since decades and this is one of the reasons why the fair is among the first fairs in Europe».
Art Brussels: the desire to collect
The fair grew out of the desire of an association of galleries in Belgium to organize itself into an even more professional and international structure. «At the beginning, the fair was national. Then, it decided to invite galleries from abroad and that’s how, year by year, it became international». Moreover, in Belgium there is «a tradition in collecting art, which is passed on from generation to generation. There is a curiosity also in collecting, people want to discover new talents».
«Art Brussels is an establishment, but it is still curious and open to discovery, it is still young in the DNA. The fair is aligned with the collectors, it is organically matched with the audience».
An international audience: Art Brussels
This thirty-ninth edition will include one hundred and fifty-two galleries from all over the world: sixty-three galleries from Belgium, thirty-two from France, fourteen from the United States and from Germany, eleven from Italy. They are joined by countries such as Australia, Peru, South Africa, and South Korea.
Four different sections: Discovery, Prime, Rediscovery and Solo
The fair features four sections: Discovery, Prime, Rediscovery and Solo. Each of them represents a market segment and an approach to contemporary art.
The Discovery section is dedicated to emerging young artists, whereas the Prime section presents works by established artists. The Rediscovery section allows, the rediscovery of underrated or unknown, living and nonliving, artists and the immersion in installations or groups of works dedicated to a single artist. The works are Post War creations from the 20th Century. The Solo section includes 29 gallery presentations of a project by a living artist, offering further reflection on that artist’s practice.
«Some collectors could be more interested in discovering young artists. There are others that are more interested in discovering established or big career artists, or others who are more interested in artists that were creative in the twentieth century and inspired a lot of artists nowadays».
Guided tours are intended to guide visitors and collectors to discover artists and galleries they might not see on their own.
The Rediscovery section at Art Brussels
This year for the first time the Rediscovery section had many applications, so it was decided to group them all together in a single area with this specific focus. In fact, this will be a new feature of the upcoming edition; in the past the galleries participating in the Rediscovery section were distributed throughout the various areas of the fair.
The selection and discovery committees of Art Brussels
Galleries are chosen by an International Selection Committee and a Discovery Committee.
The Selection Committee is responsible for the selection of the Prime and Rediscovery sections and the Solo presentations. It is composed of international gallerists that judge the gallery profiles, their book presentations, the quality of their projects and the artists’ CVs.
The Discovery Committee, instead, is composed of international curators and gallerists. This year’s jury consists of Kiera Blakey of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Michael Callies of dépendance in Brussels, and Suzana Vasilescu of Suprainfinit in Bucharest.
The Solo and Discovery prizes to sustain galleries and emerging artists
One of the aims of the fair is to financially help galleries and emerging artists through two prize money awards: the Solo prize, introduced in 2008, and the more recent Discovery prize.
«The prize for the best solo presentation is a prize of ten thousand euros and the prize money goes to the winning artist. This is also because we ask for the solo presentation that the project is created by the artist. It is an appreciation that the jury has for this artist by supporting the career. It is an acknowledgement that we give to the artist».
The Discovery Prize is a five-thousand-euro prize, donated in the form of a check to the winning gallery. The award was introduced in 2013 «because it is a difficult job to open a gallery and it requires a lot of effort. It is a prize that is much appreciated, not only for the financial support, but also because it has a recognition in the sector».
The OFF program
During the fair, galleries in Brussels will participate in the OFF program with solo or group shows.
These include Fondation Boghossian with the group show Family Matters, curated by Louma Salamé, featuring a range of videos, installations, sculptures, paintings, and photographs, by artists of various background, including Sophie Whettnall, Bruce Nauman, Henry Moore, and Hans Op de Beeck.
Kanal – Centre Pompidou, currently under construction, will present the work FAÇADE: Laure Prouvost, co-commissioned and co-produced by Kanal – Centre Pompidou itself and artlead.
Fondation Thalie will present the work of French artist Eva Jospin for the first time in Brussels with the exhibition Panorama, curated by Nathalie Guiot, the foundation’s founding director. Not forgetting the other institutions involved, such as La Loge with Marina Pinsky’s Infinity Play, Bozar with the two exhibitions Swedish Ecstasy and Michel François – Contre Nature, CC Strombeek with the group show Second Sight.
Art Brussels supports KickCancer foundation
For the second year in a row, Art Brussels supports the KickCancer foundation, a Belgium foundation involved in the fight against kids with cancer. This year the galleries asked their artists to create a postcard-sized work (a drawing, a painting, or a sculpture) to be sold during the fair.
The artworks will all be displayed together with the list of the participating artists on a wall, and visitors or collectors will have the opportunity to purchase them without knowing in advance the name of the artist.
All proceeds from the sales will be donated to the foundation for scientific researches and medicines in order to beat childhood cancer. «It is a gift by the collectors, but it is also a gift by the artists. By participating in this project, you can buy original artwork for four hundred euros. The idea is also that you don’t know from whom you buy. He can be a super established or a young upcoming artist. You read the name in the back of the card when the acquisition is made».
An established fair with a young DNA
«There is a mix between contemporary, young, upcoming, established and rediscovery artists. So we would like to continue going on this path because it is aligned with the interest of collectors».
The future goals include to keep offering quality, while remaining open and ready for novelty, as evidenced by the fair’s current awards and sections. In this sense, emphasis will continue to be placed on the composition of the selection committees and on the choice of jury members for the two prizes.
The purpose is to «follow the same path. We want to continue to deliver quality and we want to be steady and open to novelties. Going to Art Brussels is leading to a certain experience. What is interesting at such an event it’s not only seeing the works of art in real life, but having encounters with other people and building stories, meeting other passionate collectors or meeting an artist».
Nele Verhaeren
Nele Verhaeren is the current managing director of Art Brussels and Art Antwerp. Art Brussels is a renowned contemporary art fair in Europe, taking place from 20-23 April.
