Corey McCorkle
Marte Johnslien
Luc Kheradmand
Mark Macken
Jef Verheyen
Mona Vatamanu
Florin Tudor
Erik van Lieshout
Kris Fierens
Tinka Pittoors
David Diao
Susanne Kriemann
Pavel Buchler
Tim Etchells
Sylvie Blocher
Rui Sanchez
Wim Delevoye
Thom Puckey
Richard Deacon
Anish Kapoor
Cindy Sherman
Ben Vautier
Les Levine
Maria Nordman
Luc Deleu
John Kormeling
'Lonely at the top: Modern Dialect'. The exhibition brings Braem's modernist architecture face to face with the work of contemporary artists. 'Collection XXVI: The Artefactum years'. Artefactum was a Belgian art magazine published by Flor Bex, the former director of MUHKA, from 1983 to 1994. The museum invited him to put together a presentation of works from the collection, taking Artefactum as the unifying element.
Lonely at the top: Modern Dialect
Contemporary artists look at the work of Renaat Braem
10 sep 2010 - 14 nov 2010
Looking back at an oeuvre that united architecture, commitment, politics and reflection as an art form. August 2010 marks the centenary of the birth of one of Belgium’s best-known architects, Renaat Braem, and this is being celebrated in ‘Renaat Braem 1910-2010’. Part of it is an exhibition called Modern Dialect that will be held at three venues: the top floors of the M HKA (LATT), CC Nova in Hoboken and on the Braem site itself. It brings Braem’s modernist formal idiom face to face with work by contemporary artists. Their sculptures and installations expose a number of paradoxes and create a multifaceted view of modernism and the social utopia of that movement, which still has an influence on international architecture today.
The Belgian architect Renaat Braem (1910-2001) had an international reputation for his innovative and radical views on urban planning. After working with Le Corbusier, he made his mark on the reconstruction of several Flemish towns and cities after the Second World War. In Antwerp and Brussels especially, he defined the skyline with large-scale utopian housing projects, such as the tower blocks at Kiel in Antwerp and the Heizel model district in Brussels. They are either extolled for their clarity of layout and practical benefits or reviled for their impersonal and monotonous appearance, but Braem’s buildings do not leave anyone unmoved. The centenary of this visionary designer’s birth provides the ideal opportunity to look back at an oeuvre that united architecture, commitment, politics and reflection as an art form.
The Modern Dialect exhibition brings Braem’s modernist architecture face to face with the work of contemporary artists. Their images and installations reveal a number of paradoxes and create a multifaceted view of modernism and the social utopia of its formal idiom, which still influences the world’s architecture today.
Includes work by Corey McCorkle, Marte Johnslien, Luc Kheradmand, Mark Macken, Jef Verheyen, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Erik van Lieshout, Kris Fierens & Tinka Pittoors, David Diao, Susanne Kriemann, Pavel Büchler en Tim Etchells.
The Modern Dialect exhibition will be on at the M HKA (10.09 - 14.11), around the social housing blocks at the Kiel and in CO Nova (10.09 - 22.10).
Modern Dialect is an exhibition project initiated by d’vis and the M HKA that forms part of the Braem Year organised by the Flemish Architecture Institute. Modern Dialect is curated by Win Van den Abeele.
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Collection XXVI: The Artefactum years
10 sep 2010 - 20 feb 2011
A presentation of works from the M HKA collection that have appeared in articles in the Artefactum art magazine. Plus works by Denmark, made using copies of the magazine. With work by Denmark, Sylvie Blocher, Rui Sanchez, Wim Delevoye, Thom Puckey, Richard Deacon, Anish Kapoor, Cindy Sherman, Ben Vautier, Les Levine, Maria Nordman, Luc Deleu, John Körmeling …
Artefactum was a Belgian art magazine published by Flor Bex, the former director of M HKA, from 1983 to 1994. The museum invited him to put together a presentation of works from the collection, taking Artefactum as the unifying element. The result is an outline of contemporary art in Flanders in that particular period. In addition to works from the collection that were mentioned in the magazine, the display also includes an installation by Denmark made using copies of the magazine.
Image: F. Philippi, VIOE Brussels, Archief Renaat Braem,
Lay-out M HKA
Press contact:
Rita Compère / Kathleen Weyts
T +3 (0)3 609991 or +3 (0)3 608097 pers@muhka.be
Opening 10 September 2010
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen
Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerpen
Tue-wed, Fri-sun 11-18, Thu 11-21
Admission free