ART CITIES:Brussels-Ways of Seeing
The group exhibition “Ways of Seeing”, takes its title from John Berger’s 1972 homonymous text on visual culture, the exhibition invites the viewer to investigate the manifold ways by which artists accord forms and concepts that are otherwise familiar with renewed appearances and meanings. Each of the artworks on display beckons us to take a second look, upon which the contours of a new reality begin to emerge.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: ARTER-Space for Art Archive
“Ways of Seeing” that is on presentation at Boghossian Foundation-Villa Empain features more than 30 artists, and consists of 70 works ranging from 1000 BC to the present, spanning a variety of media from painting, sculpture and photography to sound, film and installation. The exhibition facilitates a return towards a vision of artists as makers of things, who relentlessly remind us that the connection between what we see and what we know is never settled, and that seeing is, at its core, a political act. It includes a number of seminal works such as an early 1968 projection piece by James Turrell, one of the vertical construction installations of Fred Sandback, video pioneers Paul and Marlene Kos’ 1976 “lightning” video, and two of Gustav Metzger’s “Historic Photographs” along with a number of his early ‘40s drawings. The viewer’s desire to understand an artwork can never be fully divorced from the politics that underpin the traditions in which it was created, and the mechanisms that are used for its display. “Ways of Seeing” unfolds along a non-linear temporal thread that challenges the rigidity of periods, genres, and so-called “isms”. Several of the artworks provide a critique of the art-historical references that appear within them, highlighting the politicized contexts in which they are often encountered; a sub-theme that this exhibition examines. The exhibition facilitates a return towards a vision of the artist as a maker of things, a skilled technician, who through their understanding and handling of the physical properties of things can alter our way of seeing. Artists relentlessly remind us that the connection between what we see and what we think we know is never that simple, and that seeing is, at its core, a political act. Artists: Ghada Amer, Chris Bond, Ulisse Cantagalli, James Casebere, David Claerbout, Jojakim Cortis & Adrian Sonderegger, Hayri Çizel, Salvador Dalí, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Jeppe Hein, Paul & Marlene Kos, Alicja Kwade, Gustav Metzger, Shana Moulton, Vik Muniz, Grayson Perry, Walid Raad, Édouard Frédéric Wilhelm Richter, Fred Sandback, Markus Schinwald, Hassan Sharif, Cindy Sherman, Kim Tschang-Yeul, James Turrell, Kara Walker, James Webb, Frederik de Wit and a number of anonymous artists
Info: Curators: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Boghossian Foundation-Villa Empain, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 67, Brussels, Duration: 22/9/17-18/2/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.villaempain.com
