Luc Tuymans, 'Big Brother', 2008
Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerpen & David Zwirner Gallery, Nyc
On view at Wiels until 2 August
ArtBrussels">ArtBrussels is now considered to be one of Europe's leading contemporary art fairs, so the VIP programme comes equipped with red carpet service, BMW chauffered cars and visits to major gallery openings, like the new Luc Tuymans show at Wiels, a former brewery with a dizzying industrial stairwell and café restored to its tiled, shiny copper machinery-filled glory.
The fair boasts 172 exhibitors from 23 different countries and attracts a truly European crowd - the Parisians come on Saturday and there's a good turnout throughout the four days from Italy, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Rheinland, as well as from the significant local Belgian collector base.
Located in the impressive halls of the Atomium, a sprawling collection of buildings set in Royal parkland, the fair intelligently herds visitors first into the younger gallery section, before allowing them to do the rounds of the blue-chip galleries.
The consensus from the Belgian galleries (27% of the exhibitors) was that this 27th fair had been a good one: Tache Levy and Erna-Hecey were impressed both by the visitor turnout and by the sales potential. Fred (London), at the fair for their second year, had done particularly well with German and Belgian artists, whilst Alison Jacques said that the Belgian collector market was increasingly important to them and that they had made excellent new contacts, a sentiment echoed by London's Pilar Corrias who were doing their first fair ever. Jacques' most ambitious piece, a $75,000 Liz Craft painted bronze sculpture, was on double reserve on the penultimate day of the fair and they had sold a Paul Morrison sculpture, one amongst several pieces being displayed in Egmont Park, adjacent to the new Barbara Gladstone space, as 'Art in the City', part of the ArtBrussels programme.
It seems that Brussels' increasingly sophisticated art scene has encouraged the likes of Gladstone to open up shop in the last year, as well as Nathalie Obadia and Almine Rech from France. Gladstone was showing Matthew Barney's designs for his forthcoming opera, 'Ancient Evenings', in their elegant, mansion-style space uptown. The white painted floorboard interior and Escher-like internal staircase was almost more entrancing than Barney's sketches.
Matthew Barney, 'Ancient Evenings: Ba Libretto', 2009
Graphite and gold leaf paperback copy of Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, on carved salt base, in nylon and acrylic vitrine; 15 1/2 x 13 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches
ArtBrussels spawns a smattering of gallery openings and the town was alive with private views and installations. In the fashionable "Dansaert" neighbourhood, which was relatively run-down until a few years ago, former biochemist-cum-collector Marc Strijboos has recently opened Locuslux Gallery. He was capitalising on ArtBrussels to launch a year of exhibitions curated by celebrated Belgian artist-philosopher, Loek Grootjans. "Art is knowledge!", Grootjans was pronouncing, in typical philosopher fashion, gesticulating at the work of four artists that he has gathered for the first in a three-part show called "...Stands for Attitude" at Locuslux.
"...Stands for Attitude" at Locuslux
Grootjans is showing alongside Belgian great Marcel Broodthaers in the IKOB in Eupen at the moment and he is as interested in the art debate as in the making of work. The artists he has chosen for "...Stands for Attitude" fulfil his criteria of doing more than creating an aesthetic. They are "kindred spirits", he feels, in their search for new forms of expression and in their readiness to show "attitude". All of them experiment with media, are flexible in their practice, collaborate with other artists; some write about art. All fearlessly take on the canon of art history and feel that they still have something to contribute.
The gallery entrance seems to be the site of some sort of break-in, a platform and screen that have been kicked in, part of an installation by Wolfgang Ellenrieder (Germany) and Veronika Veit (Germany). Standing unsteadily on his feet in the window, (victim or culprit?) is Velt's suited, diminutive business man, fists scrunched up as though he's ready for a fight. He's one of several eerily lifelike, half human height sculptures that populate the gallery; and then there's Maria Roosen's shiny ceramic nude torsos - are they headless witnesses to this scene too? In the middle of the space, a tussle has broken out between three of Veit's hoodies and they are a tangle of sneakers and jeans on the floor. Others sit around apparently unmoved by the fight, dangling their legs on speakers that produce sound for Ellenrieder's projection. The film is on a loop, showing an explosion, a massive ball of flame that flares up and dies down every few minutes. One of the hoodies gazes vacantly from the corner of the room. He's so stoned that nothing really impacts: you see this kind of thing on telly all the time anyway. Apparently at night, the flame looks as though it is coming from the gallery window and several of the good citizens of Brussels have mistakenly alerted the fire brigade.
Installation view, "...Stands for Attitude" at Locuslux | |
Installation view, "...Stands for Attitude" at Locuslux | |
This first part of the show is called 'Parallel Movement' and complementing the installation are minimally figurative 'portraits' of urban types, as well as more sci-fi style paintings, futuristic 'landscapes' by Ellenrieder and the cube constructs of Christoph Kern. The next shows are 'Causal Connection' (14 May - 4 June) and 'Finding Ways' (4-21 June), continuing Grootjan's knowledge quest - to find art that interprets and re-presents the world we think we know so well.
Theresa Simon
Locuslux Gallery
Oude Graanmarkt 57
B-1000 Brussels
www.locuslux.com
T + 32 (0) 25 12 13 11
ArtBrussels
24-27 April 2009
www.artbrussels.be
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Theresa Simon runs an arts PR agency set up in 2001. 
