The first edition of RendezVous — Brussels Art Week, runs from 12 to 15 September

The new initiative gathers 53 participating galleries

From September 12 to 15, 2024, Brussels kicks off the new gallery season with the inaugural edition of RendezVous - Brussels Art Week, a new initiative by Laure Decock and Evelyn Simons that aims to unite the diverse players in the city's contemporary art scene. This event is set to create a dynamic platform for gallerists, curators, museum directors, artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts alike, celebrating the richness and diversity of Brussels’ artistic fabric.

Following the recent cancellation of the Brussels Gallery Weekend after 16 successful years, Laure Decock and Evelyn Simons are taking the reins with the support of over 50 contemporary art galleries, both established names like Xavier Hufkens, rodolphe janssen, Jan Mot and Galerie Greta Meert alongside newcomers such as Grège Gallery, Sybil, Gauli Zitter and KIN. Their vision is to position Brussels firmly on the international art agenda by showcasing the quality and variety of its artistic community.

RendezVous - Brussels Art Week will kick off on Thursday 12 September with a collective opening night for all participating galleries followed by drinks, and will end with a moment of gathering at KIOSK Radio on Sunday 15 September. These get-togethers are designed to foster collaboration and dialogue among participants, creating a sense of community and shared passion for contemporary art.

“Brussels is a unique place, a vibrant metropolis where creativity thrives amidst a charming chaos. Our aim is to harness this energy, bringing together the city's artistic forces to celebrate the contemporary art scene,” said Laure Decock & Evelyn Simons, founders of RendezVous.

The event will highlight the geographical spread of the gallery scene, encompassing downtown, uptown, and midtown, showcasing both established and emerging galleries. The weekend will be filled with openings, performances, and spontaneous get-togethers.

As part of this inaugural edition, the programme will feature various itineraries focusing on distinct Brussels geographies, recurring exhibition themes, and discursive activities.

RendezVous
Brussels Art Week
12 - 15 September 2024

Participating Galleries:

RendezVous 2024 is made possible with the kind support of Art Brussels and Visit Brussels.

Programme here

RdV-PressProgramme-digital.pdf

PDF - 229 Kb

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Some first highlights

12 Sept, 5-9PM: collective opening night at participating galleries followed by drinks at Café des Minimes, hosted by RendezVous
13 Sept, 11AM-6PM: Focus MIDTOWN (Sablon & Forest), with some exciting newcomers such as:

- Gauli Zitter: Ethan Assouline
Gauli Zitter was founded in Brussels in 2023 by Philip Poppek and Piero Bisello. On the occasion of RendezVous, Gauli Zitter presents the first solo exhibition in Belgium of Paris-based artist Ethan Assouline (born 1994, FR). The title of the exhibition, "Coquelicots", French for poppy flowers, refers to Assouline's addressing the urban environment, its codes, propagandas, and especially what steers away from them. Poppies are generally unplanned plants, things out of control, nonetheless occasion for happiness. Assouline's works in the exhibition are an attempt to see how symbols like the poppy can signify something other than what is commonly intended.

- KIN: Andrzej Steinbach
KIN is a new gallery in the heart of Brussels, Rue Ravenstein, with a focus on artistic positions that defy easy categorisation. The gallery space, designed by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, rethinks what a contemporary gallery space can be today, creating a site that allows for multifaceted presentations by contemporary international artists. KIN will present a solo show by Andrzej Steinbach, bringing his newest series “Erweiterungen,” which delves into the idea of human extensions through technology, inspired by McLuhan’s concept of inventions as body extensions. The exhibition’s title references a fundamental robotics problem: understanding one’s surroundings to navigate effectively. This concept serves as an analogy for Steinbach’s art, inviting us to constantly re-evaluate our positions and viewpoints.

- Lodovico Corsini: Flowers of Romance
Curated by the acclaimed British writer, Charlie Fox, Flowers of Romance is a dreamy, lovesick group show exploring all the different forms that romance can take from obsession to heartbreak and true love. The object of desire is shape-shifting, too, of course: it can be an animal, another person, a material, or flowers themselves…
The show is divided into two acts: Day and Night. If we were their relationship therapist, we’d probably say Act One (The Day of the Smitten Leopards) is the sweet part of this folie a deux while Act Two (The Night of the Heartbroken Racoon) is kind of… darker, but then power couples always have strange effects on each other. Both are equally influenced by Roxy Music’s Avalon.
With: Matthew Barney, Nan Goldin, Karen  Kilimnik, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Sam McKinniss, Rachel Rose, Ed Ruscha, Araki, Cosima von Bonin, George Kuchar, Ron Nagle, Calvin Marcus, Hajime Sorayama, Matt Copson and others  
14 Sept, 11AM-6PM: Focus DOWNTOWN, with a mix of new galleries and established players, such as

- dépendance: Danai Anesiadou
dépendance was founded in late 2003. The gallery sees itself as more than a commercial space and shares its artists' critical views. dépendance will present a solo show by Danai Anesiadou, a Belgian artist of Greek origin whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses performance, installation, sculpture and collage. In her personal language she taps into various sources from both popular culture and the canonical forms of "high" art. Metaphysics, deep politics, rumors, conspiracies and the intimacy of secrets are the centrifugal forces from which Anesiadou's whole oeuvre radiates.

- Galerie Greta Meert: Katinka Bock 
Over the past 35 years, Galerie Greta Meert established itself as one of Brussels’ leading contemporary art galleries. Located in the center of Brussels, the gallery occupies a five-story Art Nouveau building designed by Louis Bral and renovated for the gallery by renowned Belgian architects Hilde Daem and Paul Robbrecht. Galerie Greta Meert will present a show by Katinka Bock (b. in 1976 in Frankfurt am Main). Bock works across sculpture, film, photography and installation to study concepts related to history, territory, customs and symbols. Experimenting with natural materials and responding to the direct environment in which she exhibits her work, she establishes historical, physical and social relationships between these elements.

- Grège Gallery: Renaissance  
Founded in September 2021 by Marie de Brouwer, Grège Gallery embodies the convergence of art, furniture and architecture. The inception of Grège Gallery traces back to Marie's inspirational journeys toIndonesia and Burkina-Faso, igniting her entrepreneurial spirit and a deep appreciation for unique ancient pieces. With a professional background in interior design, she envisioned combining her three passions: art, architecture, and furniture. Twice a year, the gallery curate exhibitions at extraordinary locations.
15 Sept, 11AM-6PM: Focus UPTOWN, with established names bringing solo shows of Belgian artists, such as:

- Baronian: Leen Voet
Galerie Baronian will present a new exhibition by Leen Voet (b. 1971, Belgium). Voet is inspired by found visual and literary sources and questions, in a manner that is not devoid of humor, the very notion of creativity and the value of artistic expression in our society. After her successful exhibition at Museum M in Leuven in the spring of 2023, the artist will exhibit new works from two different series in Brussels. Both series refer to her traditional art school programme at the Turnhout Heilig Graf Institute under the leadership of Bert Vandael.

- rodolphe janssen: Lisa Vlaemminck
In her work, Lisa Vlaemminck (1992, Brussels) explores the boundaries of painting, creating an exciting, vibrating and disorienting universe. In her images, she questions classic phenomena in painting, such as the landscape and the still life, by freezing them behind semi-transparent layers of paint. What feels familiar soon turns out not to be what it seems. Image, material, form and texture mutate into compositional playgrounds floating in a newly created universe. Pulling from conventional visual vocabularies of painting tropes, still-life subjects such as potted plants or bowls of fruit offer an armature for images to be built out from, remixed and re-encountered under new eccentric parameters.

- Xavier Hufkens: Jan Vercruysse
With a career that spanned over four decades, Jan Vercruysse was considered one of Europe’s most influential conceptual artists. A poet in his youth, Vercruysse decided in 1974 to focus on the visual arts by working predominantly in series. From his earliest photographic self-portraits to his sculptural still lifes, each series is a remarkable creation suggestive of interiors or furniture, theater settings or architecture, yet they often seem absent of an immediate identifiable content, as if they confront the viewer with a riddle.
15 Sept, 6-9PM: closing drinks & music at KIOSK Radio, hosted by RendezVous

Some images

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The first edition of RendezVous — Brussels Art Week, runs from 12 to 15 September

RdV-PressProgramme-digital.pdf

PDF - 229 Kb

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