30 APRIL & 1 MAY: TRAJECTOR ART FAIR, BRUSSLES
April 2011 sees the return of Trajector Art Fair to Brussels after its first appearance in the Belgian capital in 2010. The event, in collaboration with Art Brussels, will once again transform Hotel Bloom! into a vibrant “boutique hotel art fair” providing a platform for a grand variety of international art spaces, galleries and curators with some of the best international contemporary art of today. The event has focused on young artists” initiatives and independent curatorial projects with a strong inclusion of solo projects. Core presentations come from the following exhibitors:
Bearspace (London), Broodwork (Los Angeles), Carter Presents (London), Centrifugal Projects (London), ed projects (Ostend), Ersatz (Mobile), Family Viewing (London), Flaggfabrikken (Bergen), Fred Ltd (London), Grey Area (Paris), Houldsworth (London), Isis Gallery (London), Galerie Marion De Cannière (Antwerp), MU (Eindhoven), P/////AKT (Amsterdam), RAiR (Rotterdam), Rokeby (London), Ruimte Morguen (Antwerp), Galerija Škuc (Ljubljana), Torch Gallery (Amsterdam), Galerie Toxic (Luxembourg), TPTP (Paris), Union Gallery (London), Vierter Stock Projektraum (Berlin)
As well as these individual exhibitors, Trajector Art Fair will deliver two special programmes of interest, the first being the thematic strand entitled Neuconomics which consists of a panel discussion which attempts to examine professional responses – artistic and otherwise – to current circumstances of the art world, from funding cuts and cultural budgets across Europe to the protests or alternative strategies for economic viability of arts organisations.
The second and most substantial programme is the return of “Taut – Fashion & Art” from curators Laurent Dombrowicz and Ken Pratt. The two united their respective fashion creative and art curatorial backgrounds, following on from their previous directorial roles at the successful niche magazine “Wound”, to found this experimental programme for the Trajector Art Fair which examines the intersections between fashion and art throughout history and into the future. This years programme entitled “Knitting Together An Image of Fashion” will include a screening programme, exhibited works, special projects, discussions and talks specifically examining the idea of knitting at the intersection of art and fashion as well as ideas of the moving image of fashion; how advances in print technology, photography and media communications are affecting the industry.
The event also sees the Belgian premier of Lewis Klahr’s seven-film cycle ‘Engram Sepals’, a presentation by Feminist Art Workers, a key feminist collective active from the 1970’s onwards on the American west coast and the Trajector 2011 Commission, awarded to the British/American artist Jemima Brown.
Jemima Brown makes a special solo presentation including entirely new work at Trajector 2011. This special commission for 2011 is entitled “Starlets & Other Stories” exploring cinema and popular culture in a number of new directions that continue to elaborate her interest in personal identity, populism, “street culture” and social relationships.
A number of the new works presented reflect on popular and populist culture and its historical connections with science and technology. Brown foregrounds the ways in which we turn our fears and anxieties about technology into entertainment or cool cultural phenomena, making links to personal history through the motif of “the starlet” (Brown”s own grandmother was an actress whose aspirations to stardom in the 1950″s were shattered when her husband was blacklisted as one of “The Hollywood Ten”) as well as exploring the opportunities provided by current technology such as Facebook – the way in which it allows the popular audience the ability to make its own “cinema” or entertainment online. An example of Brown”s idea of fearing technological advances is the new “table top sculptures” with connotations of evil scientists shrinking human beings.
The Trajector Art Fair will be open to the public at the following address from Saturday 30th April to Sunday 1st May:
Hotel BLOOM!rue Royale 250
B – 1210 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
By Lucy Mclean
