
Zoek-stadion
Port House
Zaha Hadidplein, Antwerp
24/06/2023 – 03/12/2023
Baroque Influencers
One of the big exhibitions this year is totally my thing: ‘Baroque Influencers’. In 2018, the Baroque year, I published my book about Baroque in Antwerp (only in Dutch) and as you know, Rubens is one of my favorite painters. The best places to guide in Antwerp are the Port House, the Heritage Library and the Saint Carolo Borromeo Church. Now comes the fun part: the city festival will take place at these 3 locations (and in the KMSKA and the Snijders&Rockox House).
The expo in the Port House is called Zoek-Stadion and only shows contemporary artists. Every four weeks, different artists work in the temporary installation in the atrium in the Port House. In addition, the works of Nadia Naveau will have a central place in the atrium.
Nadia Naveau
The work of contemporary artist Nadia Naveau has been chosen because it combines tradition and innovation. Due to their opulence, the pieces are closely related to the Baroque, for example the column on the right. Naveau looks for inspiration in very different contexts and merges this into her work of art.
In the Port House, white statues stand together on a blue carpet that serves as a plinth. Sculptors showed their work in plaster in the nineteenth-century salons. This way the buyer could see which statue he wanted and in which version, such as bronze, wood and marble. Nadia Naveau reversed that principle here: she went looking for molds of earlier sculptures and had them cast in plaster. From a distance it looks like a whole, but closer you see different details and works.
Combination of exhibitions and lectures
Until December, not only the changing exhibitions can be seen in the atrium of the Port House, but lectures are also given. Curator Sergio Servellón adopted this idea from the ‘Hedendaagse Kunst’ (contemporary art) conferences of Antwerp artist Jozef Peeters that took place about 100 years ago.
For ‘Search Stadium’ I mirror myself more to the more extreme avant-garde in Belgium in the 1920s and in particular to the way they tried to give contemporary art a place in society. For me that also summarizes what binds all projects: thinking about what community art could be. Whether or not commissioned, in the case of Rubens, or from a sense of mission of the artist, like the members of De Pelgrim.
(Sergio Servellón, curator)
Visit
You can visit the installations (in the atrium of the Port House) from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and even on Saturday from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.
The coffee bar is also open from Monday to Friday, but only until 4 pm! More information about the coffee bar and guided tours can be found on the website of the Port House. If you want a tour, you can always ask for me 😉
List of the artists:
FAAR 24.06.2023 – 23.07.2023
Extra Curriculum 29.07.2023 – 27.08.2023
Antwerpen (Re)actief 02.09.2023 – 01.10.2023
ARTwork 07.10.2023 – 05.11.2023
MUCE 11.11.2023 – 03.12.2023
Zoek-Stadion