WHAT IS IT ?

Designed as an experiment around the contemporary art fair format and an alternative to its generic, sterilised white-cube labyrinth, POPPOSITIONS brings life back into this environment by gathering galleries and hybrids art spaces. With an itinerant initiative, POPPOSITIONS remobilises locations for each edition, focuses on contextual, site-specific productions and aims to provide a critical, independent and unique point-of-view during Art Brussels.

WHO ARE WE ?

POPPOSITIONS was born from the initiative of Liv Vaisberg, who rounded-up fellow pioneers Edouard Meier, Pieter Vermeulen and Ibrahim Öztas to remodel the format of an art fair by introducing the vital need for critical reflection. Converging from various backgrounds, eager to join their diverse energy and experiences, they were shortly thereafter joined by an ever-growing team of like-minded volunteers to help flourish and challenge the quality of art production, presentation and spectatorship during Art Brussels. Aleksandra Eriksson, Marie Valette and Bart Verschueren are key driving forces regarding the organisation and conceptualising of the event. The team of volunteers includes Angela Donksoi, Julien Keita, Maxime Dendraën, Eva Menga and Wouter Pauwels. Lastly, a group of curators meets to maintain POPPOSITIONS’ concept and to carry out the selection of participants (Thomas Arsac (curator, 303Gallery NYC), Guillaume Bleret (independant curator), Patrick Carpentier (artist), Matteo Lucchetti (independant curator, Visible), Samuel Saelemakers (curator, Witte de With) and Pieter Vermeulen (independant curator).

3rd EDITION // POPPOSITIONS // 2014

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The 2014 edition of POPPOSITIONS will take place at the Dexia Art Center, whose building is located in Brussels’ historic center, near the Central Train Station, Brussels Opera House and Bozar. This exquisite building, financed by the Vanderborght brothers in the thirties in order to make a furniture store, once housed the art collection of the Dexia bank.

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Adversely, this building was the first victim of the European financial crisis in 2011 and has since become the Belfius bank, purchased by the government through the sales of its art collection. After hosting several cultural events, the Vanderborghts will potentially house the modern art of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts collection intermittently.

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POPPOSITIONS is radically different from other fairs. Our panel of curators has notably selected the work of artists who are represented by galleries and other hybrid spaces that will endow the building of the former Dexia Art Center in Brussels. The entire project stages itself under the guise of a temporary exhibition, while at the same time maintaining an art fair status. To round out the event, POPPOSITIONS has crafted a parallel program of experimental music in the Document listening salon, performances, and discussion panels contending the issues of art fairs and the art market. A conceptual vegetarian restaurant, a mobile café, and a site-specific bookshop, all itinerant and ephemeral, reflecting the ideology of POPPOSITIONS itself, will welcome visitors in an offbeat yet cordial manner.

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2nd EDITION // POPPOSITIONS // 2013

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Following the general enthusiasm of the public and the press on our first edition, the event recurred in 2013 at Forest’s Brass with a new set of volunteers, willingly motivated to further enhance the project in order to span a larger audience to alternative potentials of engaging with art.

PARTICIPANTS :

200×75 (FR) : Hugo Bregeau/Guillaume Pellay/Grégory & Cyril Chapuisat  /Abilene (BE) : Laura Porter/Valentin Lewandowski  / Actionfields (BE) : Conny Kuilboer  / Bęc Zmiana (PL) : Michał Gayer/Rafał Dominik  / Collectif P4 (BE/CH): Thomas Bernardet   / Document (BE) : Ben Marzys/Brussels Pony Club/Cerebral Teen Trip/Cleveland/Coeur/Davon/Faislebeau/Handless/Jeny Cox/LuvGang/Nathan Oye/Patrick Carpentier/Sarah & Charles/Shekenz/Soumaya Aka Phéline/True Chains/Walrus Fuori/ Campo (IT): Marco Andrea Magni  / Greylight Projects (BE/NL) : Marc Buchy/Stefan Piat/Wouter Huis/Silvia Bakker/   Les commissaires anonymes (FR): Joséphine Kaeppelin   / Not Yet (BE) : Todd von Ammon/Jean-Pierre Bertrand/Emilie Pischedda/Valentin Souquet/Jonathan Sullam/Elodie Delaigle/   Outlandish (BE) : Egon Van Herreweghe/Dominique Somers   / Ponyhof Gallery (BE) : Karen Vermeren/ Prestige (BE) : Christina Stuhlberger/David Denil/Svend Thomsen/Elisabeth Ida/Delphine Lebon/Debby Huysmans/Nicoline van Stapele/Maaike Leyn/Wim de Maat/Joris Vermassen/Mario De Brabandere/Cristian Bors & Marius Ritiu/Koen Broucke/Shuxian Lee/Thé van Bergen/Annelies de Mey/Gery De Smet/Karl Mechnig/Line Boogaerts/Kristof van Heeschvelde/Peter Weidenbaum/Saar de Buysere/Lieven Segers/Bart van Dijck/Annemie Augustijns/Hala Elias/ RK projects (US) : Jeff Hale/Richard Keller  / Rossi Contemporary (BE) : Simon Laureyns  / Sils (NL) : Dico Kruijsse/Ken Lum/Gwendoline Robin  / Squid & Tabernacle (UK) : Alex Chalmers/Annamaria Kardos/Charlie Godet Thomas/Louise

IN TANDEM WITH :

Broer Bretel mobile café / Theophile’s Papers itinerant bookshop / Villa Leopolda festuring El Turco concept pop-up vegetarian eatery / Shelter Press publications / En plein public wall mural.

Continuously installing in locations marked by a strong sense of history and architecture, the concept evolves throughout the years and POPPOSITIONS incessantly defines itself by its unconventional and hybrid format in response to the advent of art fairs over the past 50 years. Our aim is to maintain an independent and critical approach focused on the production of contextual contemporary art while maintaining complimentary access to a quality event.

1st EDITION // POPPOSITIONS // 2012

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The first edition took place without any financial means and in a very short preparation time in the Brussel Congress Station in 2012.

PARTICIPANTS :

Abilene(BE) : Nicolas Bourthoumieux/Dougie Eynon/ Document(BE) : The Michael (Pleasure)/Jeny Cox/True Chain$/Ben Marzys/Different Fools with Siet Raeymaekers/Walden/Nathan Oye & DKA/Walrus/Geoff Wichmann/Coeur/Cleveland/ Or Nothing(BE):Gérard Meurant/ Outlandish(BE) : Egon Van Herreweghe/Dominique Somers/ Ponyhof Gallery(BE) : Aurélien Dupuis/Karen Vermeren/ Thankyouforcoming(FR/UK) : Stéphanie Lagarde/Cyril Verde/ The Ister(BE):Alan Fertil/Damien Teixidor

IN TANDEM WITH :

Theophile’s Papers itinerant bookshop / Villa Leopolda concept pop-up vegetarian eatery

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POPPOSITIONS

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The publications