BANQUEROUTE
Art au centre writes about their exhibition BANQUEROUTE:
"The project takes the shape of a fertile parasitization in which two organisms coexist in a kind of relationship, which, although seemingly negative for the host of the parasite, turns out to be necessary for its balance, like the mushroom that is able to emerge in unsettled environments. A series of questions consequently emerge from the confrontation. What do we collect and why? What influence does the collection have on the creation? What type of 'values' do we attribute to collecting and creation overall?
The Private Views exhibition gives the floor to collectors from Liège while the Banqueroute addresses the topic from the point of view of the artists, 'producers' of all collections. The artworks voluntarily lodge themselves in the margins and the interstices of scenography and the museum, a subtle nod to the marginal and often precarious position granted to the 'workers' and 'producers' of culture. This singular stance also echoes creation once it goes beyond the norm of collections, art market or institutions. Does art need to be seen, collected or legitimized to exist? Banqueroute unveils a discreet journey where the visitor is steered towards physical, intellectual and sensorial action to produce a broader experience that is centered on our ability to pay attention to others.
The artworks initiate two lines of thinking. The sculptures by Charlie Malgat, Maria Vita Goral and Julia Gault question the material durability that is induced by the conservation of a collection. What place do artworks whose materiality is either temporary (protocol, performance, installation) or doomed to disappear (ephemeral artwork, use of perishable materials) occupy in contemporary collections? The second line of thinking leads to a shift from a financial, patrimonial and market value of art, towards social, poetic or political values. Arthur Cordier, Joséphine Kaeppelin or Harriet Rose Morley allude to the fragile status of the artist and reconsider their own position within communication and production systems. Marjolein Guldentops, Julie Gaubert, Emile Hermans, Alicia Kremser, Cathleen Owens, Yue Yuan and Jean-Marie Massou poetically or humorously orchestrate artistic interventions that recall our daily lives, sometimes in a barely visible way, while playing with our perception and implying the social and political loss or disillusionment of our era."