Brussels Cologne Contemporaries

Brussels Cologne Contemporaries (BCC) is a cooperative project involving some twenty galleries in Brussels and Cologne. “Brussels and Cologne are two important cities in the field of art collection,” says Tim Wouters of Galerie Waldburger, which, along with Elaine Levy Projects and Ricou Gallery, was one of the galleries that got the project under way in Brussels. “Brussels is important as the capital of Belgium and Cologne as the most important city of the Rhineland, a region with one of the highest concentrations of collectors and curators in the world,” he observes. The BCC, it should be said, is also a call for cooperation between the two cities. The event alternates between Cologne and Brussels. For the second edition, which takes place this weekend, it is our city’s turn. The organisers don’t want to call it an art fair: they see it as more of a group exhibition in which each gallery turns the spotlight on the work of a particular (young) artist. Galerie Waldburger presents Eli Cortiñas, a video artist who has worked for Lars von Trier. In her videos she uses excerpts from the films of, among others, Buñuel, Cassavetes, and Truffaut. In FIN, for example, she transforms the credits at the end of Truffaut’s La sirène du Mississippi into an endless, moving, snowy landscape. D+T Project Gallery is showing work by Elena Bajo, a Spanish artist who uses everyday material such as old picture frames and mirrors to offer her own interpretation of minimalism. The Swiss artist Manuel Burgener, exhibiting at Catherine Bastide, also explores form and material. The Cologne gallery M29 Richter Brückner presents Philipp Hamann, who uses video to tell stories in which he often makes use of personal items and documents. Maik and Dirk Löbbert, who are represented by Marion Scharmann, rework photographs of street scenes and spatial situations, demonstrating a sense of the absurd that may not be unfamiliar to the Belgian public.

Brussels Cologne Contemporaries 18 > 20/1, vr/ve/Fr 18 > 21.00, w-e 12 > 19.00, MAD Brussels, Nieuwe Graanmarkt 10 place du Nouveau Marché aux Grains, Brussel/Bruxelles, www.bccontemporaries.com