The Importance of Being ...

Gathering 40 international artists (born or living in Belgium), the exhibition “The Importance of Being...” will travel to 4 important museums in Latin America along one year and a half, offering a vast panorama of the contemporary art scene in Belgium, without intending to encompass thoroughly.

Plural discourses and transversal approaches through a wide range of artistic supports make possible to highlight nowadays crucial problematics worldwide in order to think on possible connections with other latitudes while mapping similarities and differences.

The goal has been to go beyond the notion of Belgium. It is a departure point as laboratory/platform with specific but also global cultural dynamics and geopolitical approaches, in the center of Europe on the decision-making and towards the rest of the world. In this sense, subjects related to power and memory, to the binomial identity-alterity, conflicts and borders, human relations with both the technosphere and biosphere in the context of the globalization are developed on the exhibition. In this sense, the exhibition proposes 5 conceptual trends establishing a strong thread between the selected artworks.

In parallel to the show, a program of performances, workshops with local art schools, conferences and panels of discussion will take place along the exhibition. The first venue will be Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana as from February 13th this year.

Dates
13 February until 26 April 2015
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba

4 July until 12 September 2015
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2 December 2015 until 14 February 2016
Museo de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

11 July until 14 July 2016
Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil

The opening of the Cuban exhibition will be followed by a week of events related to it, comprising several conferences during which the artists involved in the exhibition will present their work, as well as round tables and panel discussions, a documentary program and an educational programme.

With the support of the government of Flanders.