Art Adventures From Antwerp to Amsterdam

A Surprising Performance, Food to Heal Heartbreak and The Chair of Wonders

My city is alive. It’s Antwerp Art Weekend once again. Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the city of Antwerp took center stage in my agenda. And today, Sunday, I’m heading to an event in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) that I co-organized for The Art Society, an exclusive members club for art collectors sponsored by ING Private Banking. I’m writing this newsletter while on the road. For my paying readers, the continuation of last week’s story, my 6 insights on how to assess the quality of art, will be available next week, so the suspense continues ;) Enjoy funny adventures of the last couple of days!

A Surprising Performance

This week, I’ve given several tours in Borgerhout. It has become quite trendy for discovering art that’s a bit more experimental than what’s generally shown in the city center (Zuid). While starting my second guided tour, I was surprised to see a large pile of inflatable toys meant for playing in the sea. It instantly brought a big smile to my face. Two kids ran towards it excitedly, touching the inflatables. At that moment, I thought: "Huh, but I passed by here earlier, that’s bizarre that I didn’t see this?!” I looked for a sign with the artist’s name but couldn’t find one, took a photo, and moved on to start my tour.

Then suddenly, during the explanation at the first stop, the bundle of balloons happily tripped along in the middle of the street; two legs sticking out from underneath. When I was cheerfully taking photos earlier, it turned out a man was hidden among the balloons. And the moving bundle of positivity intrigued me again.

An hour later, as if it was meant to be, the bundle of balloons was again between the cars. I couldn’t resist, and quickly ran over. The balloon man was Eric, but the creator of the concept was Younes Baba-Ali (b. 1986, Marocco). It was a performance that had been going on all afternoon, clearly aiming to show the contrast with the city in a playful way.

And wonder of wonders, in the gray city where it had been gray and rainy all day, the sun suddenly peeked through the clouds and beamed on our smiling faces.

Food to Digest Heartbreak

The exhibition that was a highlight for me in Antwerp was by the Portuguese artist Bruno Silva (b.1986) at Violet, an art space run by artist Liesbet Grupping, who uses this space to showcase work by other artists with whom she has had interesting exchanges.

What immediately struck me in Bruno’s work was his varied use of different materials. Takeaway coffee cup carriers, fermented orange pieces, shiny and colourful chocolate wrappers, plastic bags for carrying fruits and vegetables from the market, … Food and everything around it takes a central place in his work. Why? Well, he’s trying to digest his heartbreak. At the same time, he feels that sharing meals is a very important part of creating memories and feeling connected with others.

One work that particularly stood out to me because of its poetic use of words is the following: “it & ti.” The first word, an English word, feels very distant, impersonal, or perhaps just neutral. Ti in Portuguese, the artist’s native language, means you in English. Very personal, very close, very familiar. And with that contrast, it beautifully shows, in another way, the digestion of love: how with a simple change something very personal can (over time) come to feel distant or less personal.

The Chair of Wonders

We visited the collection of Oscar Van Gelderen and Manuela Klerkx in Amsterdam. Both are seasoned art collectors and connoisseurs.

During the tour, Oscar mentioned that one time after a long day of gallery hopping, he and his wife entered a gallery where a cozy chair was placed in the space. Without really thinking about it, Manuela plopped down in the chair. It just looked so beautiful and inviting. The gallery staff began to chuckle spontaneously. It was only then that she saw a text hanging above the chair, which was part of the artwork by Willem De Ridder (1939-2022). I’ll write the text in both Dutch and English so you can experience just how brilliantly this concept was conceived. In the photo underneath, you can actually see Manuela sitting in the chair.

Nederlands: Een tuinman van in de 60 vond deze stoel bij het grof vuil in Hasselt (België). Al binnen een paar dagen begonnen jonge aantrekkelijke meisjes naar hem te lonken en werd hij versierd. Iedere nacht sliep hij met een opgewonden vrouw. Zijn tante erfde deze stoel en al heel snel wilde de ene man na de andere knappe jonge man met haar het bed delen. Deze stoel heeft al aardig wat teweeg gebracht. Maximaal dertig tellen op zitten a.u.b.

English: A gardener in his 60s found this chair in the trash in Hasselt (Belgium). Within days, young attractive girls began to flirt with him, and he was seduced. Every night, he slept with an exciting woman. His aunt inherited the chair, and soon, one handsome young man after another wanted to share her bed. This chair has stirred quite a lot. Please sit on it for less than thirty seconds.

For Dutch-speaking readers who want to learn more about the artist, I invite you to read this article that Oscar, the collector, wrote about the artist for NRC Handelsblad.

And, to close this fantastic day, I couldn’t resist… I sat in the chair myself, of course for less than 30 seconds ;)

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xxxx

Emily

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