Focus on
Marc Camille Chaimowicz

Meet Marc Camille Chaimowicz, an understated pioneer and discreet dandy who has been sailing against the prevailing artistic wind for decades. In his work, he intertwines design, painting, installation, collage and text with his everyday life. Discover his sophisticated and playful work at WIELS.

In his exhibition Nuit américaine, the French term for filming day for night, Chaimowicz leads you through three cinematographic spaces: from a dark party room, to the half-light of a domestic interior and the filtered daylight of a reading room. In this special newsletter, find out more about these three groups of works and the related events happening soon at WIELS.

VISIT NUIT AMÉRICAINE

Celebration? Realife

In the aftermath of the student protests of May ’68, Chaimowicz created the legendary work Celebration? Realife (1972). While the installation embraces both the festive and the everyday, the artist stresses that it has always been fiction.

“As artificially gay and provocative as a bordello, yet as sombre and reverential as a church.”
– Jean Fisher

LECTURE

Marie Canet, author of the monograph Reverie, Its Practice and Means of Display (2022), outlines developments in Chaimowicz’s practice since the 1970s. In this lecture, she focuses on Celebration? Realife.

WED_03_05__________20:00-21:00
IN FRENCH, FREE

Hayes Court Sitting Room

The Hayes Court Sitting Room (1979-2023) is a new work, exhibited for the first time at WIELS. What you see is not just a backdrop, but a theatrical evocation of the room in which Chaimowicz dreamed, worked, conversed, corresponded and lived for more than four decades.

“It is a stunningly intimate self-portrait, without a single visual representation of Chaimowicz himself. One leaves the room feeling that one knows him, without being able to say exactly who it is one [removed]#8221;
– Joe Lloyd for Studio International

LECTURE

Want to find out more about this work? On Wednesday, celebrated British-American writer and art critic Kirsty Bell will discuss The Hayes Court Sitting Room, exploring issues of domesticity, fictional interiors and the transition of the house as studio to work of art. She draws on her previous writings on Chaimowicz, such as the chapter she devoted to him in her 2013 book The Artist’s House (available at WIELS Bookshop).

WED_26_04__________19:00-20:00
IN ENGLISH, FREE

DEAR ZOË

During the pandemic, Chaimowicz made collages at his kitchen table in his new London flat, which he sent to the curator of the exhibition, Zoë Gray, every fortnight over the course of two years.

Dear Zoë (Emma Bovary collages) is a series of 40 collages inspired by the anti-heroine Emma Bovary from Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, a character to whom Chaimowicz has long been attracted, trapped in the narrow conventions of her time.

WATCH THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHAIMOWICZ & GRAY | VIDEO

GUIDED TOUR

Building upon her personal experience of working with Marc Camille Chaimowicz, independent curator and writer Vanessa Desclaux explores the literary elements in his practice. Speaking in the exhibition, surrounded by the suite of collages, Desclaux will connect Chaimowicz’s work to other key French literary sources.

SUN_14_05_________15:00-16:00
FREE WITH EXHIBITION TICKET

WORKSHOP

Every month we invite you to a reading and writing workshop based on Madame Bovary. On 3 May, you can choose between a French-language or English-language session, given by Giulia Loi. In this session, you will first read a chosen text individually and then discuss certain themes together.

WED_03_05_________17:00 (FR) & 19:00 (EN)
FREE

KETS

KETS POSTER

The KETS poster makes a visit to the Marc Camille Chaimowicz exhibition even more fun! Discover the exhibition together with the whole family in a fun and playful way!

AVAILABLE FOR FREE
NL/FR/EN

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Focus on Marc Camille Chaimowicz

Celebration? Realife

Hayes Court Sitting Room

DEAR ZOË

KETS

Focus on
Marc Camille Chaimowicz