Andrea Winkler
David Evrard
Derek Sullivan
Eleonore Saintagnan
Ella Klaschka
Ellen Cantor
Espace Off
Francisco Camacho
Gregoire Motte
Jean-Philippe Convert
Laure Gatelier & Benjamin Lalou
Meike Schmidt & Malte Lochstedt
Michalis Pichler
Nathalie Mertens
Thibaut Espiau
Thomas Bernardet
Yan Renand
Zin Taylor
23/4/2009
Komplot : downtown
Komplot, Bruxelles
As cities struggle to cope with the contemporary economic climate, their downtown spaces are being transformed and it is commercial realities which dictate the changes. The non-occidental downtown functions more like a fairground for tourists than a living space for residents, whilst in downtown Kingston the streets are littered with garbage, sewage, dead animals, broken pavements. The project is composed by a group exhibition, Screenings, workshops, lectures and performances every week-end of May.
Exhibition :
‘Architecture of Survival’, an exhibition with Thomas Bernardet, Francisco Camacho, Ellen Cantor, Jean-Philippe Convert, Espace Off, Thibaut Espiau, David Evrard & Mathias Schweizer, Laure Gatelier & Benjamin Lalou, Ella Klaschka, Malte Lochstedt & Meike Schmidt, Nathalie Mertens, Grégoire Motte, Eleonore Saintagnan, Michalis Pichler, Yan Renand, Derek Sullivan, Zin Taylor, Andrea Winkler
Screenings, workshops, lectures and performances every week-end of May, watch this space for program.
As cities struggle to cope with the contemporary economic climate, their downtown spaces are being transformed and it is commercial realities which dictate the changes. The non-occidental downtown functions more like a fairground for tourists than a living space for residents, whilst in downtown Kingston the streets are littered with garbage, sewage, dead animals, broken pavements.
Urban centres or postmodern ghettos? Urban migrants importing uptown style downtown? The regulatory role of Brussels as the bureaucratic capital of Europe is often portrayed as having an adverse impact on it’s cultural life. Questionable building practices, hidden agendas design speculation, democratic roadblocks : ya que estamos en el baile, bailemos!
Etymologically, Komplot means conspiracy, and as an organization have been concerned with nomadic creative practices, trends of specialization, survival architectures and the infiltration of private, public and institutional space. The nomadism of Komplot as a platform of variable composition allows it to explore new terrain in relation to objects/spaces/artists and the public.
Between 2007/2008, Komplot operated from a ramshackle former car repair garage in uptown Louise, described by one resident as a ‘cancer sore’ on it’s gentrified surroundings. By compressing and expanding their activities to Zennestraat, Komplot aim neither to live in the shadow of utopian urban nostalgia nor become cultural speculators but create a vivid space of organic resonance.
Komplot’s studios and office will be located in Zennestraat 17 until October.
Also in the building: Constant, SECONDroom, q-o2, Fortlaan 17, Les Bains, JosWorld, Croxhapox
With the support of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap Commissie &
Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles
‘Capitalism Kills Love’ by Claire Fontaine : On view until April 26
On the facade of Komplot’s uptown space, 30 rue Jourdanstraat, 1060 Brussels