Denis Gielen – författare

The book presents a series of new works produced by Adel Abdessemed for the MAC’s/Museum of Contemporary Arts in Grand-Hornu. The Algerian-born French artist Adel Abdessemed (b. 1971) works in a wide variety of media including animation, installation, performance, sculpture, and video; through his art he addresses contemporary themes and he reflects the bleak picture of the present day.  His works, unsettling in their simultaneous beauty and raw reality, have made Abdessemed one of the most visible international artists of our time. This volume is composed of two distinct parts, each showcasing and examining one of two series of brand new, site-specific works created by Abdessemed for the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Grand-Hornu and the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:MAC’s, Grand Hornu(03/04/18–06/03/18)Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon(03/09/18–07/08/18)

A sweeping overview of the work of a prominent Belgian visual artistThis handsome volume traces the work and career of Belgian visual artist Johan Muyle (b. 1956) from his early assemblages of found materials to his monumental paintings and recent motorized sculptures. Considered one of the most significant Belgian artists of his generation, Muyle’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s. In this book, a series of thematic chapters situate Muyle’s oeuvre within the political and artistic context of the past thirty years and analyze the prolific artist’s critical responses to concerns including religious extremism and the disappearance of collective utopias.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:MAC’s Grand Hornu, MONS, BelgiumNovember 29, 2020–April 18, 2021

Angel Vergara’s work tests the limits of art and reality by questioning the way the contemporary image shapes the intermingled public and private spheres—as well as our own experience  Angel Vergara’s (b. 1958; based in Brussels) work is a continued investigation into the power of the image. By means of performances, videos, installations, paintings and drawings, he tests the limits of art and reality. Each of his works is an attempt to break through the image and to make its impact on an aesthetic as well as a sociocultural and political level. Thus, Vergara creates a new, suspended reality, grown from the artist’s personal dialogue with reality and with the image by which it has already been transformed. Decontextualised images of reality are mediated by the artist and transformed into art, encouraging the viewer to question their way of perceiving the everyday as well as the way it is presented to them in images. Vergara’s art disorients and disconcerts the viewer. It questions what is known and opens paths to new modes of signification.Accompanying the 2023 retrospective exhibition “In the Instant” that the MACS is dedicating to Angel Vergara, this important book reviews the career of the Belgian artist and highlights the close relationship between his painting and the cinematic medium.  Distributed for Mercatorfonds  Exhibition Schedule:  02.11.2022–02.06.2023Outside installation. Musée de la batellerie—Conflans Sainte Honorine, France.  24.11.2022–19.03.2023Photo Brut - Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels  23.04.2023–08.10.2023Angel Vergara. In a Moment. Monographic exhibition. MAC’s in Mons, Belgium.