Vrijstaat O. - Freestate
Young Belgian Art in Splendid Isolation
25 June - 11 September 2011

For the Vrijstaat O. arts centre, Freestate is the sequel to its first, high-profile appearance in 2006. At the time, the name Freestate arose out of the romantic but naive notion that it should be possible to have something like a freestate for artists, where art can be itself and avoid the laws of the market and the pressure of the masses.

For this new summer exhibition, five young and impassioned curators engaged in selecting a presentation of young contemporary art. In the genres of painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, installations, photography, video and new media. Apart from a maximum age of 35, in their selection they mainly took account of such substantive criteria as intrinsic quality, diversity and growth potential. And there turned out to be room for several surprising choices too, let's call them wild cards. So it's not a retrospective, but an individual and well-founded selection. The selection of the artists was made on the basis of long-lists and lots of conversations, and after visits to the artists. Each curator justified his own choices on the basis of his or her own practice and knowledge of art history. In many cases they had already worked with the artists and their subjective fascination clearly found its way into the exhibition. Additional background to their choices is given in the catalogue pages to be found at the end of the exhibition. It is only then that the context of the work in a specific group exhibition like this can be given.

Artists: Jessica Baxter, Astrid Bossuyt, Delphine Deguislage, Nick Ervinck, Patrice Gaillard & Claude, Mekhitar Garabedian, Pieter Geenen, Filip Gilissen, Kati Heck, Jimmy Kets, Jasper Rigole, Matthieu Ronsse, Sarah & Charles, Ief Spincemaille, Ante Timmermans, Dennis Tyfus, Philippe Van Wolputte, Vadim Vosters, Leon Vranken, Freek Wambacq and Sung-A Yoon.

Curated by Komplot, Christophe De Jaeger, Tanguy Eeckhout, Laurence Dujardyn, Stoffel Debuysere & Maria Palacios Cruz

Image: Dennis Tyfus, 2011 © Be-Part, Platform voor actuele kunst, Waregem

More information: www.vrijstaat-o.be