WGDD
05 Jun - 05 Jul 2015
WGDD
Vasily Bogatov, Daan Gielis, Taisiya Krugovykh, Karl Philips, Tom Vanuytrecht
5 June – 5 July 2015
Can fringes still exist within the art world? Or does the art market immediately assimilate each and every marginal, outlandish or obscure artistic invention that takes place in the art world?
Think of the art world as a festival site: can anything unexpected and spontaneous take place within the tightly controlled perimeters of such a festival site?
According to WGDD, the answer is yes!
The exhibition provokes the visitors to reflect on the questions above and to discover whether they agree. The artists create a temporary environment that alludes (and at times literally reproduces) the temporary architecture of the festival site. WGDD examines its transient and spontaneous eruption of joy and commonality, but also its deeply dystopian nature, it’s wasteland-like qualities and possibilities.
WGDD (Wiegedood) presents the work of three young Belgian artists, Daan Gielis (1989), Karl Philips (1984) and Tom Vanuytrecht (1982), who came of age at the fringes of the art world. Juxtaposed to their works WGDD shows the documentary Pussy versus Putin (2012), made by Vasily Bogatov (1984) and Taisiya Krugovykh (1982), two Russian documentary makers employing their own strategies within the fringes of art and political activism. Bogatov and Krugovykh’s work shows how the merger between art and activism in the new repressive capitalism of Putin’s Russia creates alternative pockets of resistance.
The wasteland in which art becomes possible once more is not Limburg, it’s certainly not surrealist Belgium, and it’s not even the repressive capitalism of Putin’s Russia. It is, rather, the art world itself, which produces its own wasteland. These are the unexpected excrescences of global capitalism and the strictures the art market imposes on young artists and art consumers.
The exhibition opens on June 5th with a performance by the Belgian black metal band Wiegedood. Performing a genre that still sits uneasy with the musical mainstream, Wiegedood stubbornly perform their black metal in Dutch.
Vasily Bogatov, Daan Gielis, Taisiya Krugovykh, Karl Philips, Tom Vanuytrecht
5 June – 5 July 2015
Can fringes still exist within the art world? Or does the art market immediately assimilate each and every marginal, outlandish or obscure artistic invention that takes place in the art world?
Think of the art world as a festival site: can anything unexpected and spontaneous take place within the tightly controlled perimeters of such a festival site?
According to WGDD, the answer is yes!
The exhibition provokes the visitors to reflect on the questions above and to discover whether they agree. The artists create a temporary environment that alludes (and at times literally reproduces) the temporary architecture of the festival site. WGDD examines its transient and spontaneous eruption of joy and commonality, but also its deeply dystopian nature, it’s wasteland-like qualities and possibilities.
WGDD (Wiegedood) presents the work of three young Belgian artists, Daan Gielis (1989), Karl Philips (1984) and Tom Vanuytrecht (1982), who came of age at the fringes of the art world. Juxtaposed to their works WGDD shows the documentary Pussy versus Putin (2012), made by Vasily Bogatov (1984) and Taisiya Krugovykh (1982), two Russian documentary makers employing their own strategies within the fringes of art and political activism. Bogatov and Krugovykh’s work shows how the merger between art and activism in the new repressive capitalism of Putin’s Russia creates alternative pockets of resistance.
The wasteland in which art becomes possible once more is not Limburg, it’s certainly not surrealist Belgium, and it’s not even the repressive capitalism of Putin’s Russia. It is, rather, the art world itself, which produces its own wasteland. These are the unexpected excrescences of global capitalism and the strictures the art market imposes on young artists and art consumers.
The exhibition opens on June 5th with a performance by the Belgian black metal band Wiegedood. Performing a genre that still sits uneasy with the musical mainstream, Wiegedood stubbornly perform their black metal in Dutch.