BRUSSELS - BRUSSELS BIENNIAL
19.10.2008 > 04.01.2009

Widely acknowledged as the international centre of the unified European Community, Brussels inaugurates its first contemporary art biennial in 2008. The Brussels Biennial responds to the ever-increasing critical impact of Brussels and its potential to provide a specific context for the presentation of contemporary art.

Brussels Biennial 1 opens on 19 October 2008, exactly fifty years after the closing of the World Fair Expo '58. At that moment the first signs of modernism were woven into the fabric of the city... a modernist surge encouraged by the building of the North-South railway connection in Brussels. As Brussels Biennial is closely related to the city's initial modernisation project, it is certainly no coincidence that the exhibition locations are chosen along this beating pulse of Brussels. Even more so, the former Post Sorting Center at the Brussels-South station and the Anneessens premetro station serve as the hubs of a citywide exhibition featuring various complexities of modernity. Furthermore, a number of artistic interventions along the North-South axe in the Brussels-Central station and the National Bank of Belgium complete the picture.

Brussels Biennial 1 is organised under the conceptual umbrella devised by its artistic director, Barbara Vanderlinden in an attempt to rethink the legacy of modernity in a global context. The individual exhibitions are curated by the contemporay art organisations: B.P.S.22, Charleroi; BAK, Utrecht; Drik, Dhaka; Extra City, Antwerp; L'appartement 22, Rabat; MuHKA, Antwerp; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Witte de With, Rotterdam.

More information: www.brusselsbiennial.org