Art Madrid'23 – Art Brussels moves downtown

 

Bricks by bricks, 2015. Obra de Eugenio Merino en Art Brussels con ADN Galería.

 

From 22 to 24 April, Brussels is full of art with Art Brussels, contemporary art fair which opens at new space, the Tour & Taxis, industrial building from the early twentieth century and, with less capacity, has forced the exhibition to prevail quality over quantity and to reduce their number of participants from 191 to 140 selected galleries. An opportunity, says the organization to "make great discoveries," referring especially to the great Belgian and international collectors to who have dedicated much of the programming of the fair.

 

 

 

 

With an average of 30,000 visitors a year, Art Brussels proposes various activities in and outside the fair among which undoubtedly this year they remark "Cabinet d'Amis: The Accidental Collection of Jan Hoet", exhibition of the most special pieces the private collection of Jan Hoet (1936-2014), acclaimed Belgian collector and curator, creator of Les Chambres d'Amis in 1986, at which invited artists to create works for houses of 50 private collectors. Hoet also was the curator of Documenta IX in Kassel. This exhibition includes work by Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Michaël Borremans, Marcel Broodthaers, Cai Guo-Qiang, Marlene Dumas, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Cady Noland, Panamarenko, Richard Prince, Luc Tuymans or Andy Warhol.

 

 

 

 

As every year, Art Brussels has chosen a photographer to create your print campaign and this time was the Belgian collective Ottomura, founded by three photographers in 2010 and they have chosen the image of the new exhibition space inhabited only by thick masses of colored smoke. Pure suggestion.

 

 

 

 

As added, are worth visiting some of his "Readings and Conversations", six readings and 4 conversations between experts in contemporary Collecting and shop around Sculpture Project, the route designed with pieces of sculpture. Then, take some abbey beer.

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.