2012-06-14 – Wednesday, 7 pm. The sun is shining over Brussels, giving the canal something of a holiday air. A building from the 1920s on the Molenbeek bank, just a short distance from the Comte de Flandre metro station. An obsolete lift and a primitive staircase lead to the second floor of former industrial premises that were converted a few years ago into an original culture venue.
The vast, austere, whitewashed space holds some surprises… A fountain in a grey rubbish bag. A giant slab of chocolate. A wall made of pink and white A4 sheets of paper surrounding a pink karaoke screen broadcasting the European anthem. Video projections of happenings: a diver in the fountain of the Parc de Bruxelles; an extension piece fitted to the Manneken Pis; a monument turned into a birthday cake heaped with whipped cream; an artist who hugs passers-by and throws confetti over them near the Gare Centrale; another who invites them to do choral singing in the Galerie Ravenstein; a third who gives away coloured balls to match the moods of the commuters getting off the trains …
These are some of the original art works brought together on Wednesday evening at the premises of iMAL (http://www.imal.org), the Centre for Digital Cultures and Technology, for the one-day exhibition organised by ARTE Belgium.
The event, which drew a number of well-known figures from the cultural and audiovisual media sectors, was part of the operation ‘Tous pour l’Art – Alles für die Kunst!’, run by the large international cultural broadcaster ARTE. In May and June, this has brought together plastic artists in Belgium, France and Germany for master classes given by renowned artists which have been televised in a series of programmes on this work in progress.
The Belgian stage of the operation, under the aegis of Angel Vergara and steered by ARTE Belgium, brought together seven young artists over four days. They were given two tasks: they had one hour in which to prepare a fifteen-minute public performance, which they then had to put on; and then they had one day in which to produce a ‘concrete manifestation’. The evening exhibition on the premises of iMAL closed the project; the programme will be broadcast in November.
