A R T I S T I C E X H I B I T I O N OPEN DAYS 2003-2012 10 years, 10 artists
01 OPEN DAYS 2003-2012 Artistic exhibition 10 years, 10 artists 8-11 October 2012 Committee of the Regions Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101, Brussels To celebrate the 10 th edition of the OPEN DAYS, the European Week of Regions and Cities, the organisers have invited 10 artists to illustrate the participation and cooperation of European regions and cities as events partners since 2003. Starting from the regional partnerships maps which visualise the OPEN DAYS partner regions and cities year after year, the artists present a series of 10 surprising individual art works. The exhibition brings together a colourful collection of blurring boundaries and mingling maps. Celebrating the notions of movement and identity and the changing dynamics between OPEN DAYS partner regions and cities, the artworks show to what extend European regional policy can change the features of European geography by opening up territories and fostering regional collaboration and exchange of good practices.
The regional partnerships maps 2003-2012 Source of inspiration 2003 2004 2005 2006 03 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Jean-Pierre Decombat Mixed media - France OPEN DAYS [Title] Border transcendence [About the Artwork] My aim was to produce a poetic image of collective memory, by creating a geographical lacework, a metaphor of the connections and exchanges that form between the different regions of the European Union. 04 The multiple strata of this artwork seek to develop the idea of a space of connection and communication, interiority and exteriority. An in-between place, where each person can find a way in to the woven network and set off on their own mental or emotional voyage. They form a labyrinth of possible routes, like a call to travel, to encounters, to exchanges, to the information flows that characterise contemporary life and social networks. [About the Artist] At the heart of things, there is always a question of fragility. The special role of art is to give an account of these shadowy areas and of the voids that corrupt our awareness of time. It is in this land of interstices and in-betweens that we encounter something to experiment with, something that must be revealed. Art as a dedication to time, as its reference sign, its poetics of space. Carrières-sur-Seine (Yvelines, France). Jean Pierre Decombat lives and works in [Exhibitions] Belgium, Switzerland, France www.jpdecombat.squarespace.com www.lagalerie.be/decombat
05 Jean-Pierre DECOMBAT Border transcendence Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2003 Format 80 X 90 cm Mixed media on paper Découpage, pyrography, collage and watercolour
06 Dragan Marković Mixed media - Belgium OPEN DAYS [Titre] Cumfinis [About the Artwork] Régis Debray says that borders have to exist because they create a home, but that at the same time they must be porous, which is what differentiates them from the walls that people build. That is the dialectic that I wanted to put in the spotlight. The object that I have put on display is the outcome of a collaborative investigation with a designer, Ninon Leclercq, on the idea of borders and their removal, of identification with a territory or territories. Several layers of identification co-exist, across the regional, national, European and global dimensions. That superposition which I have reproduced by superposing various maps of the European Union, countries and regions can create interferences and produce new identities. With this work, I want to make it possible to sense the composite, and so very modern, nature of these emerging identities, which accompany the partial shift from the national to the regional and the supranational, this moment of fragility of identity. [About the Artist] Dragan Marković was born in Belgium in 1982. He discovered photography at the age of 19 and began his studies at the Ecole de Recherche Graphique in 2002, where he came into contact with contemporary art and art photography. In 2008, he exhibited in Serbia, his country of origin. He subsequently worked for publishers and for Médecins sans Frontières, published in Le Monde Diplomatique Portugal and, in 2010, again exhibited in Brussels. Since finishing his studies in 2006, he has been developing in various fields, seeking their limits and their points of contact. He compares retouching to musical post-production. In other words, it is a matter of fine tuning, which can create a whole range of perceptions and interferences. photo.draganmarkovic.be
07 Dragan MARKOVIĆ Ninon LECLERCQ Cumfinis (Detail) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2004 Installation Mixed media
08 José Mangano Papier mâché - Italy OPEN DAYS [Title] Joyfully building the ideas in our hearts [About the Artwork] Taking as my starting point the map for the OPEN DAYS 2005, with its 16 regional partnerships each shown in a different colour, I created 16 characters, each of which represents one of those groupings. The overall composition illustrates the synergies between the cities and regions of Europe and the circulation and movement of its inhabitants. The idea for this work came to me almost immediately the use of sculpture is part of my artistic style. That made it easy to imagine how to bring together the map with my papier mâché characters. [About the Artist] José Mangano graphic designer, painter, sculptor in papier mâché, writer/poet came to Belgium in 1977. This largely self-taught artist, a native of Sicily, took an interest in many artistic disciplines, being in turn a poet, a writer, a puppeteer, a clown. In the 80s, he was a printer; with friends, he created a clown school for children. Today, José Mangano paints and creates papier mâché characters straight from his imagination, like a perpetual thirst, a way of releasing his energies into a constructive, positive world. Art for him is above all an accumulation of facts, experiences, understandings, views of everyday life. [Exhibitions] Italy, Belgium, France, Japan josemangano@gmail.com www.josemangano.com
09 José MANGANO Joyfully building the ideas in our hearts Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2005 Cardboard base 230 x 42 cm Sculptures made of papier mâché and 19-32 cm wire Acrylic
10 Béa Pendesini Contemporary lace - Belgium OPEN DAYS [Title] Crossing [About the Artwork] Ten close-up photos of parts of faces, on each of which is juxtaposed, in lace, the topography of a region. Everything is connected by uninterrupted threads, emanating from that same lace. The number ten stands symbolically for the tenth anniversary of this annual event. Each partial face is itself a communication medium, onto which is grafted a region, the sign of territorial belonging, of an identity. However, all of them are connected by threads, lines of communication, in a shared desire for cohesion. Connected in a shared concern for development. The goal of this project, based is to show the wealth of connections, while evoking a on sharing and cooperation, human potential. To create certain vulnerability. [About the Artist] Trained as a designer, Béa Pendesini has been exploring contemporary bobbin lace for the last three years. This form of expression in textiles, nourished by her other activities as a fashion and wardrobe designer, a creator of installations and a contemporary dancer, gives her free rein to reinterpret threads through stories. [Exhibition] Belgium www.modobrussels.be
11 Béa PENDESINI Crossing (Detail) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2006 Installation Mixed media, photos-lace made using wooden bobbins
Sergine André Painting Haiti OPEN DAYS [Title] The City [About the Artwork] A city is not just a collection of human beings driven by essentially functional concerns. It brings together, in a given location, men and women motivated by a common project: living in society. Talking about that living together is at the heart of Sergine André s work. Living together means sharing and respect for the other. Because when cities meet other cities, when regions meet other regions, what is happening above all is that human beings are meeting other human beings. 12 [About the Artist] After studying at the Ottawa School of Art, Sergine André returned to Haiti, where she completed her first canvases. In 1997, she exhibited at the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien. She was prizewinner at the Institut Français Meeting New Painters competition in 1997 and visiting artist at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1998. Sergine André has recently exhibited at Art Basel in Florida and has taken part in the exhibition Haiti: Kingdom of this World, which made its first stop at Agnès b in Paris last spring, before touching down at the Venice Biennale. Sergine André has lived and worked in Brussels, Belgium since September 2010. [Exhibitions] Italy, Canada, South Africa, Haiti, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Belgium, United States, Switzerland. www.sergineandre.com www.galeriemonnin.com
13 Sergine ANDRÉ The City Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2007 Diptych 2 x 50 x 50 cm Oil paint on canvas
14 Luise Galm Painting and drawing - Germany OPEN DAYS [Title] Living places Places in motion [About the Artwork] Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2008, I decided to take countries, regions and cities as living models, turning them into colour, engaged in tumultuous dances in a form of lyrical abstraction. The light is dark but still full of hope for Europe. This light is time singing. The product of my work is presented in several geometric paintings, gathered in a large format representing an area where European cultural exchanges are limitless. [About the Artist] The particularity of Luise Galm s painting is her absolute autonomy rooted in her intense inner life. The paintings perplex people without seeking to provoke. They throw into the world a whole inner life transformed into colours and shadows with no other consolation than the magic inherent in them. This reflects wholehearted devotion to the rage and the desire of existence. The artist seeks depth of expression and authenticity in the bohemian beauty of the work. Luise Galm lives and works in Brussels and Berlin. [Exhibitions] Barcelona, Berlin, Leipzig, Rostock, Brussels, Mons, Luxembourg, Ansbach, Salzburg, Venice, travelling exhibitions in France and Belgium www.luisegalm.com
15 Luise GALM Living places Places in motion Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2008 Triptych 150 x 160 cm Walnut powder, ink, collages, washes, paper on canvas
16 Valérie De Lutis Weaving and assemblage - Belgium OPEN DAYS [Title] Untitled [About the Artwork] Colours are more than just colours for me: they become materials. The map gives me inspiration and makes me want to play, working with thread, drawing, painting, sewing, while juggling the shapes and colours of the regions. Borders dissolve in the movement and mixture of materials; connections are made, creating a puzzle that symbolises the interweaving and interaction of regions, bringing together graphic, modular and visual techniques. The simple pleasure of the pictorial! [About the Artist] Valérie De Lutis a visual artist and a 2007 graduate of the textile design section of the Brussels school of fine art draws, paints, sews... From knitting and weaving her own cloth to tailoring clothes and other creations made of textiles, Valérie de Lutis takes a penetrating look at the world and creates a very particular universe woven with charm. She draws inspiration from the plains of Mongolia and diverts the refined look of Amazonian warriors to make it the stage for an incredible alchemy of materials, colours, shapes and atmosphere. [Exhibition] Belgium www.lasoeurdechristel.be www.micromarche.be
17 Valérie DE LUTIS Untitled (Detail) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2009 Format 100 x 150 cm Mixed media Paper, textiles, threads and acrylic
18 Olivier Vanderaa Photography - Belgium OPEN DAYS [Title] Landscape with numbers_#10 [About the Artwork] I have used landscapes and objects containing the number 10, photographed in an urban setting, or any assemblage and juxtaposition of disparate items that evokes that number, to create an overarching landscape showing the fragments of a city evolving, developing, growing, building dynamically, strewn with the number ten. That makes the city into the source material for the creation of a magic realist type of photographic mosaic, or fresco, around the theme of the tenth anniversary of the OPEN DAYS event. [About the Artists] Olivier Vanderaa has been exploring the photographic image as a fine art since 1997, and urban contexts, using the Internet as an exhibition platform, since 2002. His photography, influenced by digital worlds, focuses on contemporary western society, more particularly on cities, considered from a critical, sometimes poetic viewpoint. The issue of space transcription through photographic and digital media (Locative Media), the place of plausibility in the representation of reality, the participation of audiences in the creative process, and the notion of conflict, but also that of healing, are also among themes that subtend his work. [Exhibitions] Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Montreal, Kortrijk www.o-vanderaa.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=beqs0yrzkvy
19 Olivier VANDERAA Landscape with numbers_#10 (Detail) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2010 Photographic fresco 140 x 70 cm Archival ink-jet print on aluminium
Fanny Marchal Mixed media - Belgium OPEN DAYS [Title] 2011 [About the Artwork] A network composed of a multitude of small, connected cells, which help each other by sharing their strengths and their difficulties. The connections between all these little units are channels for cooperation, interchange, mobility. 20 Materials and techniques seek each other out, intersect, connect and meet, from one crossroads to the next An eclectic mix, a European Union [About the Artist] Born in Charleroi in 1986, Fanny grew up in the Belgian Ardennes before going to study in Liège. After a masters in interior design at the Saint-Luc School of Architecture, she became an architectural model maker, working for the P. Hebbelinck architectural Atelier, among others. In parallel, she has continued her formal studies, mainly on recycled materials for jewellery and lamps. Fanny Marchal lives and works in Liège, Namur and Antananarivo as a visual artist, model maker, set designer, occasional chicken keeper and fryer [Exhibitions] Liège, Brussels, Wrocław www.fannymarchal.tumblr.com
21 Fanny MARCHAL 2011 (Detail) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2011 Format 65 x 60 cm Mixed media
Kis keya Installation Haiti/Democratic Republic of Congo OPEN DAYS [Title] Metaphysical aspect of borderlines [About the Artwork] Borders are just strokes of a pen on a map. They divide worlds, but they don t separate them. They can sometimes be forgotten as quickly as they are drawn. Philippe Claudel 22 It is the principle of the relativity of borders: the things that connect people overstep lines that were drawn long ago. Somewhere between the painter s brushstroke and the child s free drawing, borders disappear and lines go in new directions. [About the Artist] Kis keya, a director and visual artist of Haitian and Congolese origin, is an artist for whom the borders between different forms of artistic expression no longer exist. Each of her creations enriches the next, through developing sensibilities, new themes, and above all the intermingling of techniques. [Exhibitions] Brussels, Antwerp, Port-au-Prince, London, New York, Ouagadougou kiskeyarlive.blogspot.com www.mariaclara-artpoint.be www.cocoaarts.com
23 KIS KEYA Metaphysical aspect of borderlines (Details) Based on the map for the OPEN DAYS 2012 Installation Mixed media
[Curator] Maria Clara Art Point [Location] Committee of the Regions Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101, Brussels Jacques Delors building, 5 th floor (foyer)