ART CITIES:Brussels- Decor

Before the Modern era, art served primarily to decorate architecture and spaces in order to make life richer and more joyful. As Asad Raza, artistic director of Villa Empain in Brussels, reminds us, “Being pleasing to the eyes is a deeper matter than one sometimes thinks”. With the inception of Modernity around 1800, the idea of a decorative artwork became a contradiction in terms.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Boghossian Foundation-Villa Empain Archive

The exhibition “Decor”, takes a look at the decorative function of Modern and Contemporary art. The artists that the exhibition assembles share an ambition to categorically reconfigure this specific mode of functioning. They do not participate in the specifically modern Western anxiety that fears the decorative capacity of artistic products and instead wishes to emancipate art from decoration. In contrast, these artists embrace the decorative as a fundamental aspect of the plastic arts and see a political potential in operating with it. These approaches also open a new dialogue with traditions of decoration and ornamentation that are rooted in Eastern aesthetics. Four artists have been commissioned to create new works: Daniel Buren covered up windows on the back side of the Villa Empain with colourful squares, Pierre Huyghe is presenting “Cambrian Explosion 14”, Waqas Khan’s wall mural installation and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s “Chambre (L’inhumaine)” are sited on the first floor. On presentation are works by: Carl Andre, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Latifa Echakhch, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Pierre Huyghe, Waqas Khan, Jeff Koons, Milena Muzquiz, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Jeroen de Rijke/Willem de Rooij, Rosemarie Trockel and Andy Warhol.

Info: Curators: Tino Sehgal, Dorothea von Hantelmann and Asad Raza, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 67, Brussels, Duration: 8/9/16-29/1/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.villaempain.com