This exhibition, organised by The International Association of Arts Critics (AICA) and the Centrale Électrique, Centre européen d’art contemporain de la Ville de Bruxelles, comprises work by 29 recent graduates from art schools in 22 European countries. It aims to raise the profile of young artists from all over Europe, by giving them a chance to demonstrate their potential, in ways that reveal both their common roots and their diversity of expression. In view of the high level of artistic exchange that already exists in Europe, it specifically seeks to give fresh opportunities to young artists just setting out on their careers to show in a different environment and interact with a new public.

This project is the fruit of the initiators’ collaboration with a selection of art schools in different countries and has been informed by a series of wide-ranging debates with staff from these schools. It has also benefited from the advice and information received from a network of art critics, curators, museum officials and gallery directors, who are closely involved with the contemporary art scene.

The exhibition was conceived by the International Bureau of AICA in Paris, with the help and support of AICA Ireland, AICA Denmark, AVCA Valencia and AICA Hellas, each of which organised an international seminar in their region, followed by an examination of artists’ dossiers. The final selection of work for the exhibition was made on the basis of around 170 submissions by young artists who had been recommended by a total of 40 art schools and of a subsequent dialogue with the artists who were short-listed.

At first sight, the works in the exhibition show a remarkable degree of homogeneity, given the variety of techniques employed, from painting, sculpture and photography to video, installations and all kinds of digital techniques. However, this should come as no surprise, considering that these young artists are all taking their first steps towards independence and away from the background provided by their art school training.

This is quite a sensitive project, in some respects, as it goes to the heart of the problems associated with artistic creation, public visibility and the factors determining its institutional recognition and validation by the art market.
If this event is to have any real success in promoting the work of the artists concerned, this will be because the criteria for selection relate closely to current thinking about contemporary art and the shared perceptions of critics and creators of what constitutes, respectively, the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. These artists pose problems in their work that are of an international nature, but seem to invite a ‘glocal’ response. In other words, they are at their best, when they can demonstrate the capacity to meld ‘local’ factors with reflexive mediation, in fashioning a ‘global’ discourse.

© Kristoffer AKSELBO, Mona Lisa Toaster, 2007

As part of the Summer of photography 2008

Karen Knorr, photographer, takes us into her poetic, strange and mysterious world. Her photographic mises en scène are undeniably evocative of paintings of the magnificent heritage sites that she chooses for placing a stuffed animal here, a languid beauty there.

It’s difficult to resist the pleasure of letting yourself be swept away into this very personal parallel world, yet one in which the backdrops are very familiar to us: the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Carnavalet, the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (museum of hunting and nature) in Paris, Château de Chambord, Château de Chantilly, and more.

These dazzling fables must be seen during the Summer of photography 2008.

© Karen KNORR

To round off 2008 in great style, La Centrale électrique European Centre for Contemporary Art presents the exhibition “Réfléchir le monde”. This exhibition is the fruit of a close collaboration with the French Embassy in Belgium, and it brings together photos, videos and installations from 12 French artists. They present visitors with their vision of the world, their viewpoints, some political, others more aesthetic, in the face of current world events and the media attention they attract.

This exhibition is presented in the context of the European Cultural Season via the project France-Kunstart.be.
In close collaboration with the French Embassy in Belgium.

© Claudine DOURY, Danses Kazakhes, Kazakhstan 2003, Courtesy Gallery Camera Obscura

« La Belgique est un accident de l’histoire, une ineptie politique, une construction boiteuse ? Certes, et là réside sa chance : le Belge est constitutivement à l’abri de toute illusion, qu’elle soit nationale, historique, linguistique ou culturelle. À peine né, il est déjà revenu de tout. Il n’a, d’entrée de jeu, que lui-même à qui se raccrocher. Cette « nudité métaphysique », cette « exception anthropologique », ce « gain de temps existentiel » sont menacés par un phénomène retors, détestable et hautement pervers : la Belgique devient à la mode ! Le Belge a pris de la bouteille, se regarde être belge et finit par singer sa propre image, forcément caricaturale, folklorique, débilitante. Face à ce constat affligeant, des artistes entrent en résistance et, armés de toute leur cruauté, s’attachent à démoder la Belgique. Une fois pour toutes.

L’exposition Toute cruauté est-elle bonne à dire ? procédera-t-elle au striptease de la Belgique ? C’est beaucoup plus excitant que ça : c’est l’art sans anesthésie, c’est la vérité au scalpel, c’est le plaisir chirurgical. »- Laurent d’Ursel, commissaire de l’exposition

© Laurent d’Ursel

Des artistes chinoises témoignent de l’évolution et de la complexité de leur société prise dans le tourbillon du boom industriel, technologique, social et artistique. Leurs œuvres, dont certaines monumentales, pointent avec force et délicatesse à la fois les transformations de ce pays immense face aux défis de la globalisation et de la confrontation avec l’Occident.

Cette exposition inédite est le reflet de l’émergence d’une nouvelle génération de femmes artistes qui renouent tout en finesse et en sensibilité avec la tradition et la philosophie orientales. Une découverte assurément et une expression inattendue dans le paysage de l’art contemporain chinois.

© Peng WEI

African Photography Biennial
After the success of the first exhibition, La Centrale électrique presents the 8th edition of the Bamako Encounters. On the programme is a selection of photographs and videos with ‘borders’ as subject matter, be they geographical, political, social or religious.
The artists cast a view of commitment on migration, the relationship with the other, the disappearance of borders as a consequence of globalisation or, in contrast, the construction of walls to protect them. These are strong images, full of questions, charged with emotions.
Unprecedented in Belgium, this exhibition will be on view from March at La Centrale électrique in Brussels and at the FotoMuseum in Antwerp.
In partnership with CULTURESFRANCE, the Ministry of Culture of Mali, the French Embassy in Belgium and the FotoMuseum in Antwerp.

© Baudouin MOUANDA