The project started with an article in the New York Times in late 2015 (see attachment). The American paper wrote that Brussels was the place to be for the art scene. “For decades, Europe’s buttoned-up political centre had a reputation for stodginess and chilliness. No longer: Brussels has quietly emerged as one of the continent’s most exciting creative hubs.” For professor De Wolf that was reason enough to temporarily move the young turks from the Brussels’ art scene to Berlin to show the whole world what Brussels really has up its sleeve.
With the exhibition Gemischte gefühle at the former airfield Tempelhof the organisers want to strike a nerve in the Berlin art world by showing contemporary BRUSSELS at its edgiest. Furthermore in a highly original way, that plays into what plays in the Brussels art world these days. They call on the most important assets of the city, the protagonists of the art world in our capital that inspired the journalists of the NYT to such high praise. The idea is to transfer that Brussels’ spirit to Berlin and arouse a burning curiosity for the Belgian capital.
The criteria for selection of the twelve young artists was twofold. On the one hand the composers obviously look for the intrinsic qualities of the young works, but on the other hand the curators wondered with every case whether the artist could - in an original and confronting way - play into the main theme of the exposition: BRUSSELS, MIGRATION and IDENTITY.
Location:
FLUGHAFEN TEMPELHOF
Tempelhofer Damm 1–7
12101 BERLIN