An eclectic introduction to modern Belgium culture is perhaps the best description for Belgium Week which runs from the 12-19 November and showcases a diverse range of artists including Filip Jordens, Jacques Brel, Peter Lenaerts, DJ Maxime Firket, Yves Ullens de Schooten, Harold Ancart, Sophie Whettnall, Belgian comics and gastronomy.
The weeks events launch with DJ Maxime Firket at Kee Club on the 12 November. On Sunday one of the more interesting performances is Filip Jordens Homage a Brel where he performs a repetoire of the legendary singer-songwriter and actor Jacques Brel songs at Ping Pong Gintonería in Sai Ying Pun, tickets are $500.
https://youtu.be/E7zgNye6HTE
The most unusual event is sound artist Peter Lenaerts MicroSleepDub ‘residency’ at Wing in Chai Wan from the 17-27 November. MicroSleepDub is about micro sound, architecture and urbanism. It’s a durational performance built around a sound composition for dub plates where Lenaerts listens and looks for sounds that are too quiet, too vague, or too low to be heard normally. Using a microphone as a microscope, he zooms in and amplifies these neglected, underexposed and discarded sounds. MicroSleepDub is an all night performance, where listening and sleeping are both encouraged. Entry is free, but registration is required.
A series of art exhibitions at the Kee Club and Artone will showcase established and new artists from Belgium whose artworks reflect Belgium as a country; rich in culture and artistic expression. Exhibition curator Emilie Rolin Jacquemyns commented that “I wanted to showcase a wide spectrum of artists that could really give a deeper feeling of Belgium. Each time I look at their artwork, there is a part of our culture, history and way of life that I see. Light is at the core of all their work, everything is subtle, minimalist and perfect. To me, there is a calming sense that unite all these pieces, and a sense of brightness, an expression of colour, that brings Belgium closer to home for me here in Hong Kong.”Artists exhibiting at the KEE Club include:
Harold Ancart: born in Brussels but now lives and works in New York, he will be presenting an untitled piece. Using space and repetition for his architectural installations and works on paper, his work is often minimalist with recurring motifs of parrots, the jungle and palm trees.
Ann Veronica Janssens: an artist who uses distribution of light, colour, and reflective surfaces to reveal the instability of perception of time and space. She will showcase her art piece named Magic Mirror.
Sophie Whettnall: lives and works in Brussels and focuses on light but also has an eye for its absence, as well as landscape – a frequent theme in her work, uses raw and natural elements to reflect contradictory concepts and perceptions and will be exhibiting Border Lines #26.
Poetic Views
Date: 11am-11pm, 14-18 November, 2016
Venue: KEE Club
Tickets: Free
Photographer Yves Ullens de Schooten who will be showcasing The Theatre of Lights using abstract photography as his medium to express emotion and energy brought by light and colour at ArtOne.
Matières et contrast (Materials and Contrast)
Date: 10am-9pm, 12-19 November, 2016
Venue: Artone
Tickets: Free
In addition to the KEE and ArtOne exhibitions, Michel Mouffe has a solo show at the Axel Vervoordt Gallery and Andy Wauman, a solo show at Art Statements, Wong Chuk Hang. There is also an exhibition of photography, by Jean-Pierre Ruelle – Hong Kong and Islands at the Lightstage Gallery, Sheung Wan.
For a full program of events see www.belgiumhk.com
Belgium Week
Date: 12-19 November, 2016
Venue: Various
Tickets: See individual events
More info: www.BelgiumHK.com
Abigail Reynolds: based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, Abigail Reynolds studied English Literature at Oxford University before pursuing Fine Art at Goldsmiths University. Her interest in books prompts her collages, sculptures, films and most recently, printmaking. The ideas driving Reynold’s work are based on reportage photography books, her interest in networks of association and how our sense of time is affected by technology. She has exhibited at art institutions and galleries in London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Eindhoven. In her presentation at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Reynolds incorporates a large-scale sculpture which will print her sourced images onto glass for the first time.
Newsha Tavakolian: born in 1981, Newsha is a Tehran based photo-journalist and artist. Early in her career she produced photo documentaries in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan and Yemen and gained international recognition with work published in magazines and newspapers such as Time, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and the New York Times. Tavakolian’s exhibitions include Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, Aaran Gallery, Tehran, and Otto Gallery, Florence. In her photography installation for Art Basel in Hong Kong 2016 she documents the lives of nine Teheran residents combining wall size scenery with a large video screen and several photographs of varying sizes into an installation drawn from her forthcoming exhibition and book ‘Blank pages of an Iranian photo album’
Alvin Zafra: born in 1978 in Quezon City, Philippines, Alvin graduated from the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in 2000 and won the Dominador Castaneda Award for Visual Essay. He’s exhibited at West Gallery, Quezon City, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In his exhibition at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Zafra explores two different cities and their architectures. The drawings presented are based on photographs he took in the National Capital Region of the Philippines and in Hanover, Germany.