Bart Lodewijks | Unforgettable Neighbourhood | Moscou-Bernadette

01.11.2007... 01.11.2009

Bart Lodewijks - drawing Zetternamstraat, 2009

Bart Lodewijks - drawing Mellestraat, 2008

Bart Lodewijks - drawing Oefenpleinstraat, 2008

Bart Lodewijks - drawing Zetternamstraat 11, 2009

Strongly rooted in the urban web S.M.A.K. wanted to strengthen and maintain the bond with the city. Beside the great exhibitions such as Over the Edges (2000) and here soon also TRACK (2012), also the application of a kind of urban acupuncture too fits in this vision. Artistically oriented actions or temporary art integrations are organized in a more continuous movement.

The project Moscou-Bernadette fits within this vision and was a social-artistic project that was established in collaboration with the Arts Department of the city of Ghent and Nucleo vzw and was situated in the districts Moscou and Gentbrugge and Bernadette in Sint-Amandsberg.
By a number of actions, slowly but surely the project took shape in the neigbourhoods, and the neighbourhoods gave the project shape. By piling up experiences and our long-lasting presence, contemporary art could get a place in the life of Moscou and Bernadette’s life. We especially wanted to start a dialogue with the reality of the district. That is why there also was an intense collaboration with other local partners: primary schools, social work on playgrounds and on local streets, deanery, a senior’s centre and field-aimed work…

Young, rising artists as well as renowned, experienced artists were stimulated to participate. The S.M.A.K.’s partnership had to take care for the constant guidance of artists and their path within the neighbourhoods. By working in ways which were adapted to areas for a long period of time, we kept the neighbourhood’s and artist’s expectations on scale. Every part of the project created expectations, which could be met within the available time , budgets and energy. If this was not the case, we had or took the time that was necessary to realize the expectations. By piling up the tangible and attainable aims of the neighbourhoods themselves, we tried to build up a mutual relationship based on trust.

Bart Lodewijks | Unforgettable Neighbourhood | Proposal for permanent chalk drawings

In 2006 we invited the Dutch artist Bart Lodewijks for the first time. After a first visit and a longer period of a few months working in Moscou, he left for a foreign residence in Curaçao. After that, he spent a whole year drawing in Moscou. Slowly he became a part of Moscou. Finally, he also moved to Ghent and everyday he goes to Moscou by bike. Moscou is also the place where his second daughter was born. This makes Bart Lodewijks one of the artists, for whose work Bernadette-Moscou has become very important in his work. The influence of his presence in Moscou on the further developments in his work cannot be wiped out anymore. The meetings in the neighbourhood and his chalk drawings on and in the houses of Moscou have become a part of life, for a number of inhabitants as well as for himself.
Bart Lodewijks’ project was concluded with the presentation of the book ‘Unforgettable neighbourhood- proposal for permanent chalk drawings’, that was presented in may 2010.
Here you can find more information about the publication.

In 2009 Dara Birnbaum’s exhibition ‘Retrospective: The Dark Matter of Media Light’ took place in S.MA.K. This exposition presented a highly critical insight into (American) society and more particularly into the way it is being portrayed by television. Parallel with the exhibition, a retrospective book, which gives a complete image of Birnbaum’s work, was developed. Based on the personal archive and with unpublished, substantial material, it is the story of an artist, as a woman with an dauntless bent for knowledge and insight. The different points of view will be deepened by e.g. Michael Newman , Johanna Burton, Diedrich Diedrichsen, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sigrid Adorf, Sanford Kwinter en Olaf Möller. Philippe Van Cauteren, artistic director of S.M.A.K., wrote the foreword. The book will be presented on the 4th of March 2011 in New York


http://moscou.wordpress.com
www.gent.be/dienstkunsten
www.nucleo.be
www.hanstheys.be
www.romapublications.org
www.galeriezink.de