Fwd: MTL and Art & Project - on the introduction of minimal and conceptual art in Belgium and The Netherlands

March 5, 2010

Daniel Buren, work in situ, Galerie MTL, Bruxelles-Brussel, juin-juni 1970. Détail © D.B-ADAGP	Office for Contemporary Art Norway MTL and Art & Project - on the introduction of minimal and conceptual art in Belgium and The Netherlands Saturday, March 5, 2010, 10AM-5PM A full day symposium exploring the activities, significance and 'internationality' of the galleries MTL in Brussels and Art & Project in Amsterdam Follow by the launch of Verksted #11: Sol LeWitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art: Manuscript and Draft Materials 1968–69, publised by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway WIELS Av. Van Volxemlaan 354 1190 Bruxelles - Brussel tel +32 (0)2 340 00 50 fax +32 (0)2 340 00 59 http://www.wiels.org
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In the light of MoMA's (New York) recent exhibition and publication about the Art & Project gallery and to tie in with research into the history of the Galerie MTL carried out by Koen Brams and Dirk Pultau, de Buren and Wiels are organizing a symposium on March 6th 2010. A number of speakers are invited to shed light on the individual and shared histories of two galleries, their networks, exhibition chronology and the artists they worked with. Founded in Brussels by visual artist, Romanist, art critic and theoretician Fernand Spillemaeckers in 1970, Galerie MTL provided the platform for more than a hundred exhibitions to which mainly the protagonists of so-called conceptual art lent their cooperation. Many of the important artists of the time had an exhibition at the gallery and that exhibition proved crucial in their development. These artists included Sol LeWitt, Gilberto Zorio, Daniel Buren, André Cadere, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Dibbets, Mel Bochner, Joseph Kosuth, Guy Mees, Hanne Darboven, John Baldessari and Robert Ryman. The Amsterdam-based Art & Project gallery is legendary. In its 20-year existence, from 1968 to 1989, it supported an international group of artists associated with minimal and conceptual art, both by organizing exhibitions at the gallery and by distributing an information bulletin. The Art & Project Bulletin - a total of 156 - enabled the gallery to build its artistic network at home and, indeed, worldwide by giving artists the opportunity to make 'exhibitions by post' in a format that was not restricted by time or place. The gallery worked with illustrious artists like Robert Barry, Alighiero e Boetti, Daniel Buren, William Leavitt, Sol LeWitt and Lawrence Weiner. This symposium will explore the activities, significance and 'internationality' of MTL in Brussels and Art & Project in Amsterdam and in particular their close ties, which resulted in their sharing a gallery space in Antwerp. About the Speakers - Koen Brams and Dirk Pültau: The work of Fernand Spillemaecker and the MTL program are the research topic of Koen Brams (director Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht) and Dirk Pültau (editor in chief De Witte Raaf, Brussels). Brams and Pültau have researched the archives of the gallery, owned by Spillemaeckers heirs, as well as other archives and countless testimonials (artists, gallery owners and collectors). Their study will be published in a forthcoming book. - Nathalie Zonnenberg: PhD student at the Free University of Amsterdam. She works on a thesis on Art & Project and conceptual art in the Netherlands. Until 2002 she worked as curator for the Witte de With. She also contributes as freelance for magazines such as Metropolis M and Tubelight. - Phillip Van Den Bossche: Director of the Kunstmuseum aan Zee Oostende. He studied the interactions between the conceptual artists of the West Coast and Art & Project. He is the author of a text published in the catalog accompanying the exhibition Art & Project at MoMA in Nyc - Christophe Cherix: Curator at Moma, organizer of the recent exhibition at MoMA New York on the influence of the Art & Project Gallery: "In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976" - Virginie Devillez: Historian at the MRBA Brussels, project manager of the Magritte Museum in 2008-2009. In the context of her thesis, Virginie Devillez researched the history of post-war Belgian galleries and their networks. About the Publication Verksted #11: Sol LeWitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art: Manuscript and Draft Materials 1968–69, documents Sol LeWitt's original manuscript exhibited at the Office for Contemporary Art Norway from 21 October to 19 December 2009. In January 1969 LeWitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art were first published in the magazine 0-9 edited by Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer, and later the same year in Art-Language as a declaration of independence of 'art as idea'. These rarely exhibited handwritten notes illustrate the evolution of LeWitt's thought with respect to his proposal and were made available to the public courtesy of the Collection Daled, Belgium. Besides reproducing the original manuscript, the publication includes 'An Image of Romanticism – Fragment and Project: From Schlegel's Athenaeum Fragments to LeWitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art', an essay by Peter Osborne that approaches how many ideas central to the understanding of contemporary art – genre, frag ment, project, concepts of the new and the concepts of art and art criticism themselves – derive from early German Romanticism. In English, French & Dutch Reservation welcome@wiels.org +32 (0)2 340 0050

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