Denis Maksimov is a political consultant, conceptual artist, curator, theorist, writer and a transdisciplinary researcher of art, power, strategy and future. www.denismaksimov.com. POLIAESTHETICA ‘THE FUTURE’ Derrida refers to L’Avenir as the ‘real future’ - something exciting, arriving without anticipation. It is a stranger in the street that starts a random conversation on the tram stop, a conversation that might lead to long-lasting friendship or relationship and change the course of your life. Artists were always fascinated about the future. In modern times of growing uncertainty and a sense of insecurity, the subject of the future comes on top of people’s agenda again. In the last decades, many people thought that history was ‘over’, that the ‘grand narratives’ and ideologies are not necessary anymore because our society reached the point of ultimate reflection. In politics, Fukuyama pronounced the end of history and the arrival of the last man - a man of liberal democracy. However the events of the last 10 years economic crisis, disappointment in elites, climate change, terrorism and the return of the cold war - have become more and more evident to people. What can save us from ourselves and the infrastructures of consumption we built that threaten the very existence of our planet in a not that distant future? The French poststructuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida wrote about two kinds of future - ‘The Future’ and ‘L’Avenir’. ‘The Future’, in his understanding, is something that we expect - ‘predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable’. It is in our calendars: plans for holidays, meetings with friends, concerts, events, arrival of salaries, planned purchases and so on. ‘The Future’ is therefore a defining matrix of our existence, the multidimensional graphs of the expected. ‘L’avenir’ (from French ‘to come’) is another story. It is something unpredictable and unexpected. In modern risk theory it is something that is called ‘black swan’. 28 | THE BRUSSELS TIMES MAGAZINE C O N T E M P O R A R One of the possible answers of the Western civilization is technological progress. We will produce more food and use less resources, we will optimize consumption and we are to become more reflective and responsible. But how much time do we need to re-adjust? Do we have enough political will? Are we capable of dealing with the myriad of challenges, many of which we have created ourselves in the course of history? Y Art should play the role of a platform for transdisciplinary discussion and reflection about ‘L’avenir’. It is the only ground where hierarchies and bureaucracies still don’t play the most important role and leave enough space for free and creative conversation. R A T BRUSSELS CHAGALL RETROSPECTIVE AT ROYAL MUSEUMS OF FINE ARTS OF BELGIUM // until June 26 open Thursday to Friday, 10 am - 5 pm, Weekends - until to 6 pm, @ Rue de la Régence 3, 1000 Brussels admission: €17.50 or €15.50, depending on the period One of the largest retrospective exhibitions of the celebrated modern artist Marc Chagall takes place at Royal Museums with more than 200 works from public and private collections around the globe. The work, both logistical and curatorial, is no doubt immense and worth to be given a good two hours or more of your time. The curators didn’t chose a traditional academic ‘historical’ timeline instead the exhibition follows the logic of the autobiography of the artist, alongside a presentation of the artistic, political, social and cultural events during his life. Just to mention a few works in the exhibition. ‘White crucifixion’, perhaps the most direct and political work of the artist, is exhibited in a public museum for the first time. Horrors of Nazism and Holocaust are captured by Chagall in a very emotional, symbolic composition. ‘Fire in the snow’ is another powerful imagery, capturing the moment of shock and fear. Surreal drawings, which Chagall is probably most known for around the world, are present in a vast variety. His favourite appropriations of Russian fairy tales characters (rooster-man, magic birds, etc.) express a romantic spirit of the unknown and the mysterious, and triggers our curiosity. THE BRUSSELS TIMES MAGAZINE | 29 ART AS SOMETHING ELSE #2: ON GENDER. GIUSEPPE CAMPUZANO: LINEA DE VIDA – MUSEO TRAVESTI DEL PERU AT VISIBLE PROJECT // until April 29 open every Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m closed during Easter holidays, April 4 - 18 @ Rue du Page 87, 1050 Ixelles free entrance Alternative narratives are a general trend nowadays. But social prejudices still limit the research potential in many places around the globe. Giuseppe Campuzano started Museo Travesti as a personal project in Lima, Peru, trying to reflect on the origins of his sexuality against the social environment in the country. The project turned out to be an extensive research of one of the ‘forgotten’ and ‘abandoned’ social groups, the LGBT community. Visible Project, in collaboration with Museo Travesti in Lima and its curator Miguel Lopez, presents posthumously (as Giuseppe Campuzano passed away last year) Campuzano’s life in parallel with the alternative narrative of Peru from the perspective of the LGBT community. The exhibition is constructed as a timeline of Peruvian history from the first organised communities thousands of years ago until the present day. Illustration is provided via historical artefacts but mostly through objects and works of the personal life of Campuzano. There is a tension between the personal history of a person struggling with society for recognition of his right to free self-identification and self-expression, and the political and social history of the Peruvian state. The composition of historical and artistic research methods makes the exhibition even more powerful. Contemporary art projects with a political statement is what our muddy postmodern Western societies need in order to reflect and claim a better future. BRUSSELS ART BRUSSELS 2015 // April 25 - 27 open 11 am to 7 pm, Monday to 8 pm @ Brussels Expo (Heysel), Halls 1 & 3, Place de Belgique, 1 admission: €20, online pre-sale - €15 Every year Brussels’ reputation as a centre for contemporary art is growing and the Art Brussels Fair has became an integral component of this process. The fair attracts the best galleries worldwide to show off established, but most importantly, emerging talents from the contemporary art world. Moreover, what makes the fair special, is that it includes a special section for ‘Young’ and ‘Discovery’ - specially selected by a curatorial jury, presenting emerging, promising and innovative artists. For a good visit, plan at least half a day. In case you want to dig deeper, a full day is needed. The preview of Art Brussels for professionals (curators, collectors, etc.) will be held on Friday (April 26). On Thursday evening (April 25), in conjunction with the launch of Art Brussels, 26 art galleries and spaces will participate in Gallery Night, which has become a tradition over time. Free shuttle buses will be circulating between different participating galleries to make sure that you can get the most out of a very packed art night. 30 | THE BRUSSELS TIMES MAGAZINE POPPOSITIONS 2015 // April 23 - 27 open 12 pm - 8 pm @ the Canal Wharf, 1000 Brussels admission: €5 April is ‘the month’ of the year of the contemporary art scene in Brussels. Poppositions Art Fair, in its 4th edition this year, continues to pursue the goal of representing art spaces, collectives and galleries that are focused on the expanded field of art. Art is not only about spending money on concrete material objects - it is an integral social asset that has the potential of changing the way how people think, open new horizons of reflection and even suggest ways out of our current crises. The motto of the fair this year is a quote from French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou - ‘Whatever you think, think something else. Whatever you do, do something else’. 40 galleries and artists’ collectives (I myself is a member of Collective Francis) will present their take on the current state and the future of art and society. The programme of public talks and debates, organised in the framework of the fair, will be announced in April. One of the talks - about artistic strategies in the expanded field - will be moderated by me. You are warmly welcome to participate in a discussion about the role of contemporary art as the source of inspiration, reflection, creativity, motivation for the economy and politics. The public opening of the fair is at 5 pm on Wednesday, 23 April. BRUSSELS MARCIN DUDEK ‘SAVED BY AN UNSEEN CRACK’ AT HARLAN LEVEY PROJECTS // from 18 April to May 30 open Thursday to Sunday, 1 pm to 7 pm @ 46 Rue Jean d’Ardenne, 1050 Ixelles free entrance Research of opposing forces is in the centre of Marcin Dudek’s second solo show at Harlan Levey Projects gallery. This is the first show in the new location of the gallery, which moved from Dansaert to the area of Place Stephanie. The tragic accident in Heysel in 1985, with the loss of 39 lives, is the point of departure for one of the main works in the exhibition. The artist intertwines reflections on his personal history with fascination with the architecture of the spectacle - ‘From flags to fairy tales to monumental failings, questions of romantic nationalism are put into play in a physical and mental battle’. Topics of fear, fanaticism, invented enemies - it couldn’t be less topical in our time. The grand opening of the new location of the gallery will be accompanied by the opening of Dudek’s exhibition on April 18, starting at 19.00 (free entry). THE BRUSSELS TIMES MAGAZINE | 31 y ar di e et th es lia po @ follow @ poliaesthete on Instagram for daily updates on contemporary art, intelligent fashion and political modernity
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