The HISK Affair, June 24 > July 18, 2021, Gosset site, Brussels

In this exceptional time that has seen art fairs postponed or replaced by their virtual counterparts due to the pandemic, it felt like the perfect occasion to reanimate the spirit of the art fair. With its white booths of various sizes, a video section, performance stage, discursive program, peculiar codes and conventions, the scenography of the art fair provides an interesting opportunity to bring together the diversity of works of the candidate laureates at the [removed];

Although art fairs and graduate shows may seem quite different at first, they do have much in common with each other. If graduate shows have become the picking grounds for gallerists and curators eager to spot new talent, it appears that many art fairs have adopted a curatorial format over the last decade as [removed];

Since Art Brussels, the second oldest contemporary art fair in Europe had to cancel two of its subsequent editions, we asked ourselves why we should not fill this void and organise a mini-fair in the Gosset building, the Brussels exhibition space of the HISK at a stone’s throw from the Tour & Taxis site where the fair traditionally takes place. Why not appropriate the scenography of art fairs as a conceptual backbone to bring together divergent artistic positions in a setting that is both tongue-in-cheek and dead serious? 

Participating artists: Dries Boutsen (BE), Nelleke Cloosterman (BE), Wim De Pauw (BE), Ian De Weerdt (BE), Manu Engelen (BE), Dani Ghercă (RO), Antoine Goossens (BE), Olivia Hernaïz (BE), Karel Koplimets (EE), Nokukhanya Langa (US/ZA), Gaëlle Leenhardt (FR), Zhixin Liao (CN), Linda Jasmin Mayer (IT), Sandrine Morgante (BE/IT), Felipe Muhr (CL), Hadassa Ngamba (CD), Noemi Osselaer (BE), Edouard Pagant (FR), Elisa Pinto (MX), Juan Pablo Plazas (CO), Stephanie Rizaj (AT/XK), Paulius Šliaupa (LT), Pei-Hsuan Wang (TW)

Curators: Sam Steverlynck and Pieter Vermeulen

Scenography: Walt Van Beek