BLACKTHURSDAY - TELEVISION IS THE MESSAGE: VISUAL ART IN THE WORK OF JEF CORNELIS

At Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain, The BlackThursday series, linked to the video programmes screened in the BlackBox, are an opportunity for the artists and/or curators to expound, during a Thursday evening, a personal programme related to their exhibition.

In the frame of the screening Private View. Jef Cornelis on art events, the program Television is the message: visual art in the work of Jef Cornelis focuses on the different strategies that Cornelis employed to depict visual artists and to report about their exhibitions. The selected films give an account of major figures such as Marcel Broodthaers, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Jef Geys, Panamarenko, Andy Warhol, but they also investigate how exhibition, as a format, has evolved during the Sixties through the Eighties. Certainly something has changed in the art world between the Warhol's exhibition at the van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1970 and the opening of three historical events, namely Initiatief ’86, Chambres d’amis and Initiatief d’amis, in Ghent in 1986. But this also applies to television. Cornelis confronts the public with the potential and the limits of the medium television. By questioning the ability of television to present contemporary art and the opening of an art manifestation, Cornelis simultaneously tests the visual art discourse and televised audio-visual culture, and causes cracks to appear in what we think of them.

Screening program introduced by Andrea Cinel

Andy Warhol
1970, 5'10”, b&w, Dutch spoken, English subtitles
Report on the Andy Warhol exhibition at the van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1970, views of the exhibition and catalogue illustrations.
Stanley Brouwn 6 stappen 10x (MTL Gallery Brussel)
1971, 3'45”, b&w, Dutch spoken, English subtitles
Despite the minimalism of his oeuvre, the work of Stanley Brouwn forces us visualise abstract measurements in three dimensions, to reinterpret trajectories and cardinal coordinates. Invited for a solo exhibition in MTL Gallery in Brussels, Brouwn's proposal consisted of counting the exact number of footsteps he was doing every day during one week in Brussels.
Marcel Broodthaers °1924
1972, 5'06”, b&w, Dutch and French spoken, English subtitles
Cornelis' film opens with Broodthaers sitting at the entrance of his exhibition in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf where he presented more than 300 objects and images that relate to “The eagle from the Oligocene to the Present”. Broodthaers made use of museographical aesthetics and methods in order underline how these can convert everyday objects in ones that have a mythical dimension.
KUNST ALS KRITIEK. WANNEER IS KUNST WEL KRITIEK? 4. Wanneer de kunstenaar in alle ernst speelt
1973, 4'47”, colour, Dutch spoken, English subtitles
In his statement, framed as a public announcement, Jef Geys (°1934) uses the programme’s broadcasting time as a publicity stunt, revealing the mechanisms of the medium of television at the same time. In a lengthy word of thanks the extensive media bureaucracy is stripped of its front, mentioning the relative cost of the programme and the broadcasting time.
De langste dag
1986, excerpt 50', colour, Dutch, English, French and Italian spoken, English subtitles
21st June 1986. With over 6 hours of live television the programme De langste dag (’The Longest Day’) by the BRT network was one of the main participants in the art manifestation Initiatief ’86, an amalgam of exhibitions simultaneously unfolding over several locations in the city of Ghent.

Gerelateerde evenementen

• Private View. Jef Cornelis on art events