Works. Exhibitions. Texts. Bio.
Nov. 10th 2019 - Dec. 14th 2019
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With Bertille Bak, Emilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Marc Buchy, Samuel Buckman, Joséphine Kaeppelin, Martin Le Chevallier, None Futbol Club, Dominique Mathieu, Adrian Melis, Julien Prévieux, Mika Rottenberg, Rirkrit Tiravanija et Elsa Werth.
Pourquoi faire ; Pour quoi faire
With Bertille Bak, Emilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Marc Buchy, Samuel Buckman, Joséphine Kaeppelin, Martin Le Chevallier, None Futbol Club, Dominique Mathieu, Adrian Melis, Julien Prévieux, Mika Rottenberg, Rirkrit Tiravanija et Elsa Werth.
Is working always doing? To be an artist, is it to work? To be active as a volunteer, is it working? To learn and transmit, is it to produce something? And all this, for what purpose? What do we produce? Why and how? What are our choices?
Perhaps the trigger for this desire to reflect with artists on these themes was a survey conducted by the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs and commissioned by the European Commission. Randomly selected households were invited to answer questionnaires about their work, their occupation: did they have any? were they looking for any? related to their diploma? had their situation changed in the last three months? about thirty questions, asked three times in two years. None of these questions dealt with volunteering, learning, artistic creation (of any kind), thinking and thinking, or any non-directly paid activity. As if "being busy", "working" necessarily means having a paid job. As if "working" necessarily means producing a good or service that can be valued in euros.
We relayed these concerns to the interviewers...who were unable to answer us anything other than "this is not provided for in the questionnaire".
We also had the opportunity to discuss these notions of fatigue, burn-out, malaise at work, loss of meaning, emptiness, absurdity of tasks, individual and collective responsibility which are so much talked about at the moment.
Perhaps the trigger for this desire to reflect with artists on these themes was a survey conducted by the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs and commissioned by the European Commission. Randomly selected households were invited to answer questionnaires about their work, their occupation: did they have any? were they looking for any? related to their diploma? had their situation changed in the last three months? about thirty questions, asked three times in two years. None of these questions dealt with volunteering, learning, artistic creation (of any kind), thinking and thinking, or any non-directly paid activity. As if "being busy", "working" necessarily means having a paid job. As if "working" necessarily means producing a good or service that can be valued in euros.
We relayed these concerns to the interviewers...who were unable to answer us anything other than "this is not provided for in the questionnaire".
We also had the opportunity to discuss these notions of fatigue, burn-out, malaise at work, loss of meaning, emptiness, absurdity of tasks, individual and collective responsibility which are so much talked about at the moment.
This is what we wanted to discuss in this exhibition: trying to approach and talk about the meaning of "doing something", explored from different angles through the works of contemporary visual artists.
For the occasion we also commissioned and co-produced three specific works (Marc Buchy, Martin Le Chevallier and Nøne Futbol Club). And, in particular, Julien Prévieux has given us the honour of showing his recently created video for the first time.
It is thanks to these artists, some well known, others less so, it is thanks to their works (videos, sculptures, actions, conceptual or very material, with humour or gravity) that we hope to be able to share with you some thoughts on these subjects.
The 14 works on display come from private collections, galleries or directly from the artists themselves. Thanks to Violène Verduron, the Servais Family Collection, anonymous lenders and artists for their support and trust.We also thank Célia Grégot, Carole Lallemand, Emma Ricci, Boris Lafargue and Nøne Futbol Club for their precious and essential help during the preparation and editing. Thanks also to Chantal Vanbellinghen for the ice and the availability of her workshop.
For the occasion we also commissioned and co-produced three specific works (Marc Buchy, Martin Le Chevallier and Nøne Futbol Club). And, in particular, Julien Prévieux has given us the honour of showing his recently created video for the first time.
It is thanks to these artists, some well known, others less so, it is thanks to their works (videos, sculptures, actions, conceptual or very material, with humour or gravity) that we hope to be able to share with you some thoughts on these subjects.
The 14 works on display come from private collections, galleries or directly from the artists themselves. Thanks to Violène Verduron, the Servais Family Collection, anonymous lenders and artists for their support and trust.We also thank Célia Grégot, Carole Lallemand, Emma Ricci, Boris Lafargue and Nøne Futbol Club for their precious and essential help during the preparation and editing. Thanks also to Chantal Vanbellinghen for the ice and the availability of her workshop.