ART

When The Circus Leaves Town

Curated by Steve Schepens

Assistant curator Dr. Ekaterina Rietz-Rakul


Berlin, Ghent, Europe, art, high culture, pop culture. How can one combine these to study the past, observe the present and predict future tendencies?


The goal of Berlinaire is to investigate existing connections by bringing together important artists and art professionals who incorporate the idea of transdisciplinartity. The exhibition in the Vooruit building shows very diverse works which aim to represent the plurality of creative mentalities of both cities. Beside the main exhibition, a selection of artworks from Joseph Beuys and Bruce Nauman from the S.M.A.K collection (The Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art Ghent) will be on display offering an insight into artistic connections between both cities. Panel discussions with renowned art professionals will deliver meta-textual material for our transdisciplinary discourse. The building of Vooruit is to be seen as a skeleton, individual projects as vital body parts, so the whole constructs a new well-functioning organism.


The exhibition When The Circus Leaves Town will present:


American artist Matt Mullican, who lives in Berlin, exhibits two works. In the video, which will be shown the first time, the artist will present a compilation which highlights one action from performances from the period of 25 years. The site-specific sculpture presented is the opposite of an action; Untitled (Sleeping Child) will be made out of materials gathered in Ghent.


German photographer and director Olaf Heine started studying architecture, but soon moved to Berlin and changed to photography. Heine’s works live from music, sports, advertising and many more topics. His work has not yet been shown in Belgium. In the exhibition he will present a documentary series.


Belgian Sculptor Johan Tahon will reveal how much he was inspired by the lions inhabiting the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. WAQ WAQ is the name of one of his dreamlike sculptures, which can be seen in the exhibition.


Michaël Borremans is known for his paintings but for Berlinaire we chose his awry filmic side. The film Weight, artist’s debut as a filmmaker, was presented for the first time at the 4th Berlin Biennale in 2006.


Belgian artist Steve Schepens will present performances and videos which have not been shown in Ghent since he left for Berlin. The selection includes performances from 2003 to 2009. Berlinaire invited the artist as a curator of the exhibition as he literally represents the link between Berlin and Ghent.

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BAR 25 Exhibition by Carolin Saage



German photographer  Carolin Saage  lives and  works

in Berlin. Her latest exhibition at Radial System, Berlin

showed an exclusive inside view of the Bar25. At the

Berlinaire Festival she will present some  extracts of that

exhibition  ”25 moments”…  a sensitive  and intense

documentation  over seven  years, that goes  far  beyond nightlife and afterhour lifestyle with it’s magic and also dirty moments, long  before  that circus  had  to  close  forever….

 

 

 

www.carolinsaage.com


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The visual presence of the multidisciplinary element will find a response by means of the extensive debates between prominent specialists of contemporary art during several forum moments.


On Friday, 8th April at 5 p.m., a panel discussion will take place in the Brugzaal on the subject “art-oriented similarities and contradictions between Ghent and Berlin”.


  • Mark Gisbourne ( DE ) – art historian, curator & critic
  • Phillipe Van Cauteren ( BE ) – director of the S.M.A.K.
  • Joost Declercq (BE ) – director of the MDD Museum
  • Ekaterina Rietz-Rakul ( DE ) – freelance art critic & curator

 

On Saturday, 9th April, a debate will take place between some renowned private collectors on the nature of their activities.

 

  • Axel Haubrok ( DE ) – Berlin private collector of contemporary art
  • Walter Vanhaerents ( BE ) – a private collector of contemporary art from Brussels

 

Nicolas Schafhausen, director of the Witte de With Museum in Rotterdam, will act as moderator during the debate.