Argos Centre for Art & Media
Re-opening 25 November 2006
Being, in Brussels
& Les Films Eux-Mêmes:
Joëlle Tuerlinckx par
Willem Oorebeek
27 November 2006-20 January 2007
Argos Centre for Art & Media
Werfstraat 13 Rue du Chantier
Brussels 1000 – Belgium
T: 32 2 2290003
E: info [at] argosarts.org
With the group exhibition Being, in Brussels Argos will inaugurate its new exhibition space, consisting of 500m2 on the ground floor of its premises. This will bring the total exhibition space at Argos to over 850m2. The refurbishment of this new space has been undertaken by the internationally acclaimed Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV. The exhibition Being, in Brussels begins with the premise that if there is one thing that characterises Brussels it is its multi-cultural and international profile. This is also reflected in the considerable number of foreign artists who have chosen to make Brussels their place of residence and work. Despite this promising situation however, their creative energies seem dispersed and fragmented. The exhibition aims to bring together the diverse practices of these artists in order to generate a discursive space and to engender a collective discussion about what it means to live and make art in Brussels. Rather than articulating some overarching, thematic curatorial agenda, the exhibition is conceived of in a loose and open-ended manner and intends to highlight the practices of these artists rather than imposing some forced dialogue between the works. What is of interest here is exploring the possibilities that may arise from what is, ultimately, a series of chance encounters. The exhibition is thus based on these chance encounters (for which Brussels is the backdrop) rather than a set of fixed or predetermined positions. Being, in Brussels aims to privilege informal discussion, process and unexpected relationships rather than some forced thematic. In effect, the whole project is a proposition that rests on the dynamics of what will or may happen throughout the process. The exhibition does not aim to foster some artificial sense of a scene but rather to instigate a discussion around what is, in effect, a shared space in the wider sense of the term, i.e. the city of Brussels. Thirteen established and emerging artists from eleven countries will present work in all media. A book will be published featuring contributions from these artists as well as other foreign artists living and working in Brussels.
Participating artists: Orla Barry (Ireland) , Pierre Bismuth (France), Jota Castro (Peru), Peter Downsbrough (USA), Dora Garcia (Spain), Kendell Geers (South Africa), Agnès Geoffray (France), Shelbatra Jashari (Kosovo), Aglaia Konrad (Austria), Gabriel Lester (Netherlands), Jimmy Robert (Guadeloupe), Charlemagne Palestine (USA), Beat Streuli (Switzerland)
The exhibition is curated by Katerina Gregos, the new artistic director of Argos
In its second exhibition space argos will present the exhibition Les Films Eux-Mêmes:Joëlle Tuerlinckx par Willem Oorebeek.
During the last years, argos has been digitally indexing and archiving the audiovisual oeuvre of the internationally acclaimed Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx. An archive, like Borges library, which cant be anything but infinite; not one but two senses of infinity: the moving image as an infinite set, which may be limited by a decision that will always be, to a certain extent, arbitrary; and the infinity of possible relations between elements. The exhibition visualizes this archive as a complex and always evolving system of taxonomies, categories, compilations and themes, a rhizomatic multiplicity that could grow without limit. In the work of Joëlle Tuerlinckx (1958) film, video, audio, installations and publications cannot be seen as separate categories but are porous and interwoven entities. To Tuerlinckx, art cannot be reduced to an external phenomenon or sublimated into a concept. On the contrary, her work is an investigation into how art itself thinks; art, not as a representation or an expression, but as a situation. The artists films and videos are not structured from narrative lines, nor through parallel editing or dialectic of ideas, but from situations. These are not conceived of as an objective entity, but as a void, or parataxis, in the form of nonhierarchical relations and constellations. Tuerlinckxs films and videos delineate fragments in infinitude, edited in real time. Duration is determined by the experience and conditions of the moment reality is treated as a laboratory, as a natural choreography of image and sound. This continuously evolving exhibition has been conceived as a collaboration with the artist Willem Oorebeek.
Being, in Brussels is supported by: Brussels Hoofstedelijk Gewest / Région de Bruxelles Capital, Stad Brussel / Ville de Bruxelles
Les Films Eux-Mêmes: Joëlle Tuerlinckx par Willem Oorebeek is supported by: Ministère de la Communauté Française Secteur des Arts Plastiques.
For more information and images contact Gabija Budreckyte or Stoffel Debuysere (Press & Communication)
T: 32 2 2290003
E : Gabija@argosarts.org or Stoffel@argosarts.org
Exhibition opening times: Tuesday Saturday 12:00 19:00
