Immersive, interactive, explorative, introspective – these are just a few adjectives that popped into my psyche to describe the brilliant new exhibition ‘Art Pops,’ that has just begun at the Belfius Art Centre in Brussels. These annual exhibitions have become an important addition to the art scene in the Belgian capital. The theme in 2024 is ‘Art Pops,’ and it literally means so – incredible pieces of art keep popping at the audience with the scope of new ideas and thoughts.
As the exhibition curator Bénedicte Bouton explained during our visit, the theme this year was developed to include the visitors in the artworks through titillating their senses and help them take away more from art. Four of the human senses – sight, smell, hearing and touch – are used by many of the artworks here to reach out to the audience. It feels as if these senses form a bridge between the artists and their viewers. While it is impossible to list all of the artworks, we have handpicked a few that would hopefully pique your interest to visit the exhibition.
Have you ever tried to feel the curves that the wind creates or painted a picture beneath your eyelids with the colours that the sunlight creates? Artists like Aurèlie Gravas and Lionel Estéve have tried to create art that let you visualise these senses.
Peter de Cupere is an olfactory artist from Antwerp who creates interactive art based on his research on various smells. His latest installation in the ‘Smoke Clouds’ series has two different cloud structures at two ends of a hall which let you insert your head into them, one-by-one and experience the difference in smell. Peter explained that his clouds let you figure out immediately the difference between clean air and polluted air in a city like Brussels. He hopes to raise awareness on toxic emissions, air pollution and how to minimise them in future as a collective population in Belgium. His second installation is an olfactory column that the visitors can try (smelling) to experience a scene of four seasons painted by Jan Brueghel (1622).
Sight and smell done? Now let’s try the senses of touch and hearing. The theme ‘Free as a bird,’ showcases works on birds and their forms from Jan Cox to Jane Graverol. The best part is, you can touch the feathers mounted on the wall behind the paintings and transform yourself into a free bird, waiting to fly away.
Like dessert at the end of a sensational meal, our next stop is the famous Black Room which hosts an array of the most interesting works each year at the exhibitions. Traversing past the calm of Leon Spillaerts to the chaos of Renè Magritte, visitors are led into a room that portrays a beautiful landscape by Flemish Renaissance artist Henri Bles (1560) and possibly completed by Lucas van Valckenborch (1597). This complex artwork is under research at the University of Liège now and artist Rinus Van de Velde has tried to re-imagine the scenes in a little film done with the help of AI.
There is much more to the exhibition from Constant Permeke to a background score composed and performed by Jasper Steverlinck that you can download and listen to. With so much to offer, ‘Art Pops’ is sure to be the star exhibition of this season!
When: 19th October 2024 – 21st June 2025.
Where: Belfius Art Centre, Place Rogier 11
