TRADITION DOESN'T GRADUATE

The exhibiting of a group constantly becoming but never quite arriving...

With artists

From the Master of Research in Art & Design (Manama) programme at St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp:
Bernardus Baldus, A.M. Dumitran, Maika Garnica, Carl Haase, Yvonne Lake, Wannes Missotten, An Onghena, Tyagi Pallav, Hanne Van Dyck, Jonas Vansteenkiste, Ersi Varveri

From the Brussels scene:
After Howl, Henry Andersen, Lény Bernay, Louise Boghossian,
Jonathan Boutefeu, Ailsa Cavers, Hugo Dietür, Vasilis Papageorgiou, Margaux Schwarz, Britt Sprogis, Yaozheng Tan

Curated by Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk and Komplot

The exhibition Tradition Doesn’t Graduate is an attempt to stretch, weave and unpick the social fabric of a group. Artists on the verge of their graduation from the Manama post-graduate program meet with KOMPLOT’s invited guests from the emerging Brussels scene. An artificial collective – at best a porous, fragmenting whole – held together by the formative template of the show and the course’s registry of promise. Concurrence is always a question of folding. Through origami one line seems to run into the other. By folding, unfolding, and refolding, traces of confrontation, resistance or friendship leave visible marks.

Opening reception
Friday the 27th of May 2016 at 6pm
Exhibition
From 28th of May to the 25th of June 2016
Location
Komplot (kmplt.be)
Hopstraat 63 / Rue du Houblon,
1000, Brussels, Belgium
Opening hours
Wed-Sat, 2-6pm

Live music performance for the finissage by Jardin
https://soundcloud.com/jardn

'Tradition Doesn’t Graduate' marks the outcome of the Master of Research in Art & Design academic year 2015-2016, taught at St Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp.

Met de steun van het Cultureel Samenwerkingsakkoord tussen de Vlaamse Gemeenschap en de Franse Gemeenschap
Avec le soutien de l’Accord Culturel entre la Communauté flamande et la Communauté française

Komplot asbl/vzw is supported by Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, COCOF, De Vlaamse Overheid and VGC

EN
Regardless of who turns pro and pursues a career in the arts, or drops the bar and decides to play one’s cards elsewhere, the graduate course will continue on the same level by consolidating new players on the field. No institution without transformation? Tradition doesn’t graduate.
From the homogenous gloss of the arts course looming over its students-cum-artists, to its recovery in the key of a heterogenous and diversified art field, the exhibition Tradition Doesn’t Graduate expands on the social fabric and dynamic of a group on the verge of graduation, vis-à-vis the structuring principles of the course, its registry of promise, and the idea of forming a collective that is best seen as a porous and fragmenting whole, held together by the course as a formative and generative template.
Having landed in Brussels at KOMPLOT, from Antwerp, the group embarks on a collective and joint effort to unpack their works for the charged moment of graduation, whilst simultaneously wanting to maintain and mark their own position in the scheme of things. A diplomatic affair, to say the least. What does it mean to become a group, bound together for a given time, in the ambiguous and temporal vacuum of a graduate course? What does it entail to exhibit (as) a group? Joint by an equal number of peers from Brussels, Tradition Doesn’t Graduate seeks to unfold the lines of thought, residues, marks and traces, acts of confrontation and resistance that rise by folding and being brought together. Here, ideas of ongoing feedback, call and response, checks and balances rise to the fore, between one’s respective artistic practices and the voices of the revolving group members, the surrounding environment and the different temporalities implied.
This publication serves to illustrate and exemplify the collective effort and movement undertaken by the twenty-two artists presented in the exhibition. It’s product – that of peaceful co-habitation whilst marking one’s presence in the world – might be read in the margins and in-between the works. Where various material aesthetics, registers and scales come to clash, complement and enhance each other, where research interests, subjects and artistic approaches diverge. In short, from individual fieldwork-taking to a formation of a patchwork of social and material relations.
A publication as another line on your CV, as a remnant of an instance past, as a ghost of a previous state, as a piece of evidence in light of seizing that prospective opportunity… As we will all continue to be upcoming, and constantly becoming but never quite arriving. For the good of practice! Even if tradition doesn’t seem to graduate!

FR
L’exposition collective Tradition Doesn’t Graduate représente la collaboration de Komplot avec l’école d’art de Sint-Lucas à Anvers. Ils travaillent ensemble au lancement plutôt qu’au sondage de la scène internationale émergente à Bruxelles.
D’un côté, l’exposition de fin d’année des post-graduat du Master of Research in Art & Design (Manama), onze artistes étudiants des professeurs Pieter Vermeulen et Wesley Meuris, présentés par le curateur invité Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk. Et en face d’eux, onze jeunes artistes sélectionnés par Komplot sur Bruxelles, issus d’écoles belges ou étrangères.
Ensemble ils forment un groupe de vingt-deux artistes de tous horizons et nationalités, incarnant le multiculturalisme belge et le pôle d’attraction que représente notre pays. Ces artistes et curateurs questionnent un certain académisme dans le monde de l’art, le format traditionnel de l’exposition et présentent des recherches aussi diverses que parfois convergentes sur des points esthétiques ou politiques.
Cette exposition met à l’épreuve toute cohérence, homogénéité ou compromis et opte pour la mise en lumière de l’altérité et de la faille dans le système, métaphore de cette société par trop aliénante et coercisive. Nous revendiquons la différence et le clash comme mode de questionnement et de célébration. Non pas deux visions de l’art ou deux faces d’un même jeu, mais bien un kaléidoscope d’autant d’options et de routes possibles, une ouverture inclusive plutôt qu’une sélection exclusive des possibles.

NL
De groepstentoonstelling Tradition Doesn’t Graduate is een samenwerking tussen Komplot en Sint Lucas Antwerpen. Deze samenwerking beoogt een beloftevolle, internationale artistieke scène in Brussel op te kaart te zetten.
Enerzijds zullen de studenten van de postgraduaatsopleiding Master in Beeldend Onderzoek (Manama) aan Sint Lucas Antwerpen (Karel de Grote-Hogeschool) hun werk presenteren. Deze elf studenten zijn doorheen het academiejaar begeleid door Wesley Meuris en Pieter Vermeulen en voor de tentoonstelling gecoacht door de externe Nederlandse curator Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk. Daartegenover stelt Komplot elf jonge kunstenaars uit Brussel, van Belgische of buitenlandse kunsthogescholen.
Samen vormen zij een groep van tweeëntwintig kunstenaars van verschillende achtergronden en nationaliteiten, het waarmerk van het Belgische multiculturalisme. Deze kunstenaars en curatoren stellen vragen bij een toenemend academisme in de kunstwereld en het traditionele tentoonstellingsformat door een spectrum aan posities binnen artistiek onderzoek te presenteren.
Deze tentoonstelling stelt coherentie, homogeniteit en compromis op de proef en kiest ervoor om de barsten in het systeem te tonen. We eisen het verschil en de clash op als een vorm van vraagstelling en viering. Geen twee kunstvisies of twee kanten van hetzelfde spel, maar eerder een caleidoscoop van opties en mogelijke routes, een inclusieve openheid eerder dan een exclusieve selectie.

Photo Credit: Ailsa Cavers

Tradition Doesn't Graduate

After Howl, Set pour le petit château (partie 2), 2016, wood, concrete and oven bricks

Jardin

Tradition Doesn't Graduate