Culture. Exhibition
‘This is an opportunity to reset and tell a different story’ EN
With one powerful work of art, graffiti pioneer Kool Koor turns the tables on history and tranforms the Halles Saint-Géry into an iconoclastic sanctuary for untold stories. “Here it is. It’s on the table, either you eat it or you don’t.” — KURT SNOEKX “The oppressor writes the story,” Kool Koor says while elaborating on the origins of his new piece in the Halles Saint-Géry, where the exhibition “Saint-Géry: le passé présent” is nearing its end. Over the course of months, that dynamic, permanently evolving show has been delving deep into the history of the popular square and the Église Saint-Géry – founded in the tenth century, elevated to a parish church by Pope Leo X 500 years ago and finally demolished between 1798 and 1801 – in particular. A turbulent history that echoes in contemporary Brussels. The oppressor writes the history, but here, in this powerful piece, the American-born, Brussels-based graffiti legend weaves the many narrative threads written from that surviving
story back into the conversation. Not by creating a vibrant mural or canvas, but a Plexiglas installation, inspired by a stained glass window from the former Église SaintGéry. “I have been working on this concept called Sanctuary for quite some time,” Kool Koor says. “It’s a project where I reappropriate windows from industrial sites and transform those sites into calm, solemn spaces that allow for meditation and contemplation. For years I have had the idea, but I haven’t yet done a full installation. So when Anne (Wetsi Mpoma, founder of the Wetsi Art Gallery and figurehead of Brussels’s art scene, Ed.) contacted me about this project and told me it was on a reproduction of a stained glass window, within the concept of iconoclasm, all the pieces fell into place.” The artist who began to do graffiti in the South Bronx in 1976 as a 13-year-old, who along with the likes of Crash, Daze, A-One, Toxic, Futura 2000, Keith Haring and Rammellzee made the graffiti scene spill out into the gallery circuit in the early 1980s, and who, as a member of the Tag Master Killers, practised “Ikonoklast Panzerism” – “taking the letter, re-appropriating and arming it, with the goal of destroying the other letters” – immediately saw something of a link in the iconoclasm
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L’avenir est féministe
Some light in dark times
Livestream 2.0
FR/ Officiellement, la Journée Internationale de la Femme a lieu le 8 mars, mais permettez-nous de nous en balancer. Pendant les deux semaines précédant cette minuscule île sur le calendrier patriarcal, notre Sterput bien-aimé ouvre ses portes souterraines à Fémixion Fanzine, qui se sert depuis un peu moins de deux ans de science-fiction féministe mordante pour redresser des situations saugrenues. Parce qu’il le faut, et avec comme objectif un avenir plus rose qui n’est pas de la science-fiction. (KS)
EN/ “I believe in the
NL/ De Botanique werkt voor
positive power that emanates from art, and its direct and indirect impact on society.” These are words we have always loved hearing, but which are now being translated into very concrete action. With Candle Up!, Brussels Gallery Weekend and Quintessence LAB have developed a project selling scented candles, designed by three artists with a heart for the city: Pieter Vermeersch (who is quoted above), Lionel Estève and Sanam Khatibi. The profits will be donated to the foodbank Feed The Culture. (KS)
zijn livestreams doorgaans met residenten, die er op het einde van hun tijdelijke verblijf een concert geven. Anders verloopt het met de Spaanse celliste en experimentele producer Yamila: haar multidisciplinaire liveperformance Eyelidless streamt ze vanuit haar eigen huis. Dat huis speelt een actieve rol tijdens haar ‘concert’, waarbij ze een mysterieus klanktapijt rond de verschillende ruimtes in haar woonst én de uithoek van haar computer weeft en zo een intieme, magische wereld creëert. (TZ)
25/2 > 7/3, Sterput, sterput.org
Pre-order before 14/3 on brusselsgalleryweekend.com
27/2, 19.00, www.botanique.be