L'VIV, UKRAINE.- Belgie Art Centre presents the first exhibition at Museum of Ideas in Lviv and second exhibition of Belgie art centre, as part of the official programme of the Kyiv Biennale of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition shows the works of Flemish, Walloon and Ukrainian artists: Wim Delvoye (BE), Jacques Charlier (BE), Johan Grimonprez (BE), Emilio Lopez Menchero (ES-BE), STEVE&BRAT (artist group Steve Schepens & Sergey Bratkov, BE-UA), Lukas Vandenabeele (BE), Angel Vergara (BE) and Andy Wauman (BE).
The starting point for the exhibition Who’s afraid of black, yellow, red, blue and yellow, curated by Philippe Braem is Belgie founder, is Steve Schepens’ artist residency at the Museum of Ideas.
Belgie is not just a popUP art space: it is an idea, a concept that can be applied to all sorts of events, happenings, situations and media, related to contemporary art. Its aim is to introduce Flemish, Walloon and international artists of all tendencies and conditions to a new audience worldwide. To reach its goals it collaborates with institutions, museums, critics, collectors and artists. The first exhibition happened during Berlin Gallery Weekend 2012 and the opening of the 7th Berlin Biennale in April 2012, this second exhibition entitled Who’s afraid of black, yellow, red, blue and yellow is equally presenting a different body of international acclaimed artists and young talents.
As symbol for the exhibition Steve Schepens has made a new oeuvre in his BELGIE flag series referring to the artist Jasper Johns’ target paintings. The target is made of the Belgian flag embracing the Ukrainian flag. For Schepens, it refers to the love of the absurd, common for both nationalities and their humour in particular.
Wim Delvoye, who will soon be exhibiting in the Louvre in Paris, is presenting his video work Sybille II, where a dreamlike music accompanies a magnified cleansing procedure.
Jacques Charlier is one of the leading conceptual artists from Wallonia. His videos ironically comment on daily (art)life, they present several actions undertaken by the artist over the years.
The film Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y by Johan Grimonprez, gazes into the abyss of the human soul by placing several terrorist attacks and hijackings in a row. His work moves elegantly between art and cinema, documentary and fiction, theory and practice.
Emilio Lopez Menchero es videos as in many of his other works often show the artist in action and disguised. In Torero- Torpedo he attempts, dressed as a bullfighter, to climb the Aubisque, French mountain famous as a Tour de France stage.
STEVE&BRAT, the artist group by Steve Schepens & Sergey Bratkov will exhibit their socially critical video-installation Tovarischch Gomofob (Comrade Homophobe), which in its absurdity competes with the absurdity of homophobia itself.
Lukas Vandenabeele wants to escape from the gesture that the artist is supposed to make and that defines him as authentic. So he sets up gdirectivesh on how to produce a work. Originally intended for himself , he here asks Steve Schepens to perform these commands as part of Schepensf Lviv residence.
Angel Vergara represented Belgium at last Venice Biennale. Vergara has used different media such as drawing, video, installation and performance, allowing him to explore and broaden the limitations of painting both from an aesthetic and socio-political perspective. In his videos he creates live paintings, a painting that is created in sync with the flow of images on the screen.
Andy Waumanfs art is about the underlying rhythm and anatomy of the urban context . its heartbeat . in a maelstrom of visual, graphic and linguistic elements. For Lviv he chose to present a poetic text based work.
