The art world turns its eyes towards Luxembourg TEXT: MARTIN PILKINGTON | PHOTOS: DAVID LAURENT
Only a year after it opened its doors, the Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery in Luxembourg City is about to present a groundbreaking exhibition of international significance. When Audrey Bossuyt is asked about her partnership with Nordine Zidoun, she struggles to define who does what in their jointly owned gallery: “We don’t have set roles,” she explains. “We have our particular strengths and different areas of expertise, but we make decisions together, it’s fluid and collaborative.” A brief glance at their beautiful gallery shows that it is clearly working. The business partners, he French and she Belgian, met seven years ago via his Luxembourg gallery. After working on some projects together they joined forc50 | Issue 29 | May 2016
es in 2013, and a year ago opened their superb new gallery in the rue Saint-Ulric in Luxembourg City’s Bohemian Grund district. “It was amazing to find such a space available in Luxembourg City – 400 square metres – and in the Grund, which is a very creative, artistic area. And it’s a building with soul,” says Bossuyt. The right building in the right area They spent a considerable time searching the city for the right place to establish the gallery, but when they saw the rue Saint-Ulric property they knew it was the one. It then took two years to gut and refurbish the space, choosing the noted Luxembourg-based architect Stefano Moreno to handle the project. The results are spectacular: Moreno maximised natural light from the front and rear of the old structure, light that bounces off pre-
dominantly white walls and near-white marble flooring to help illuminate the art within; but he retained some of the old wooden ceilings supported by iron beams to maintain the links with its history and locale. It is at once rooted and solid, and stylishly contemporary. “The dimensions of these rooms allow us to showcase large-scale artworks without crowding them or the viewer,” says Bossuyt, a quality that was seen to superb effect in the opening exhibition of pieces by American artist Luca Dellaverson in April 2015. Their dream exhibition Just a year on and Zidoun and Bossuyt are about to hold a major exhibition, one of great significance in the European Art Scene. “Nordine’s original gallery fo-