Boost in the Shell // De Bond

In 2005 the city of Bruges in Belgium stands again on the international art calendar with the important festival Corpus. The human body is a universal theme and the arts festival Corpus brings together the most recent artistic forms.

The Cultuurcentrum participates with the important exhibition of contemporary art ‘Boost in the Shell’ en the dance- and performance festival Body Stroke.

The last seven years the Cultuurcentrum organized a large number of renown exhibitions with artists such as Marcel Broodthaers, Wim Delvoye, Marina Abramovicz, Jacques Charlier, Jan Fabre, Joel-Peter Witkin, John Isaacs, Gregory Green, Santu Mofokeng and many others.

Recently we are relentlessly reminded of the fact that we are free, to do move, act and think. Apparently we are independent citizens, we have a freedom of speech, travel where we want to, we consume, buy what we want, etc.. But is this true ? To what degree do we really control our mind and body ? To what extent are we controlled ? Aren’t we forgetting all to easily the many forms of education, even conditioning which we have undergone for years ? What is the impact of influences of genetic or cultural origin, for e.g. publicity or the media, on our behaviour, thinking, feeling, acting ?

For centuries the Cartesian split between mind and body, whereby the second was clearly subordinate to the first, was used. But more and more specialists point now at the relative autonomy of our body to the mind. The body is not only a sort of interface between subject and society, it reacts independently from the mind to social and cultural impulses and pressures. In ‘Boost in the Shell’ the human body is depicted as a canvas for this contemporary subject, but also as an evolving biological organism.

In this exhibition the curators Michel Dewilde and Jerome Jacobs tackle some of the essential questions about human freedom on the one hand, and conditioning on the other through more than fifty works of art. In a labyrintic exhibition structure they push the visitors to the limits of being a human in the 21st century.

Boost in the Shell

Künstler:
Mario A. , Nobuyoshi Araki, Sarah Baker, Stephan Balleux, Gilles Barbier, Valerie Belin, Julien Beneyton, Henry Bond, Norbert Briar, Jemina Brown, Daniele Buetti, Elinor Carucci, Charley Case, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Chen Chieh-Jen, Liz Cohen, Del LaGrace Volcano, Jean Dunning, Nezaket Ekici, Margi Geerlinks, Paul Glazier, Robert Gligorov, Anthony Goicolea, Greg Gorman, John Isaacs, Hendrik Kerstens, Inez van Lamsweerde, Zoe Leonard, Valeriano Lopez, John Seymour Lucas, Glen Luchford, Loretta Lux, Lawrence Malstaf, Marcel Marien, Dominic McGill, Ryan McNamara, Alex McQuilkin, Philippe Meste, Sebastian Muniz, Bruce Nauman, Shirin Neshat, David Nicholson, Miki Nitadori, Yoshua Okon, Ronald Ophuis, Catherine Opie, Martin Parr, Leopold Rabus, Daniel Roth, Ixone Sadaba, Chéri Samba, Sam Samore, Carolee Schneemann, Gregor Schneider, Lionel Scoccimaro, Andres Serrano, Stephen Shanabrook, Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Kerry Skarbakka, Pepe Smit, Cedric Tanguy, Alastair Thain, Cornelie Tollens, Milica Tomic, Bill Viola, John Waters, Sophie Whettnall, Joel-Peter Witkin ...

Kuratoren:
Michel Dewilde, Jerome Jacobs