Together with David Bernstein we searched for the shapes an assembly can take. Dubbed the Chapelle Sessions the takeover brought us new voices and faces but above all a futher exploration of how we can share and develop our practices collectively.
Chapelle Sessions
6th Assembly
Thursday 15/11 | 19h – 23h
PRESENTATIONS
Liu Chao-tze (https://liuchaotze.com/)
Benjamin Seror
Bergur Thomas Anderson (http://www.berguranderson.info/)
Chapelle Sessions
4th Assembly
Thursday 18/10 | 19h – 23h
PRESENTATIONS
Ella de Burca (https://www.elladeburca.com/)
Simon Wald-Lasowski (insta: @simonwaldlasowski)
Nell Donkers – curator archive De Appel amsterdam (https://deappel.nl/en/about)
Chapelle Sessions
4th Assembly
Thursday 29/6 | 19h – 23h
PRESENTATIONS
Meggy Rustamova (https://www.meggyrustamova.com/)
Martín La Roche Contreras (http://www.martinlaroche.nl/)
Jan Hoeft (https://www.janhoeft.de/)
Chapelle Sessions
3rd Assembly
Sunday 29/6 | 15h – 19h
PRESENTATIONS
Robot Van Abbemuseum
GVN908
Naïmé Perrette
Chapelle Sessions
2nd Assembly
Sunday 8/6 | 19h – 23h
PRESENTATIONS
Bianca Baldi
Marnie Slater
Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson (http://www.styrmir.eu/)
Chapelle Sessions
1st Assembly
Sunday 19/5 | 15h – 19h
PRESENTATIONS
Christophe Meierhans (http://www.contrepied.de/soon/)
Mira Asriningtyas (http://www.miraasriningtyas.com/ – http://instagr.am/lirspace/)
& Dito Yuwono (http://www.ditoyuwono.com/ – http://www.900mdpl.com/)
Viktorija Rybakova
Assembly is the gathering of a group of people to exchange collective experiences and perspectives. In concrete terms, the form of an assembly has come to the following: per assembly, three artists, designers and/or thinkers are asked to share a presentation in the broadest sense of the word with the assembled people; this can be showing their own work or sharing an ongoing research, a joint exercise, …. what a presentation can be, what is shared is deliberately undefined so that there is room for unexpected encounters. The horizontality and openness of the assemblies means that discussing and reflecting together between all those present takes up an equal part as the presented one. In this way we want to close the gap between production and presentation and thereby reduce the alienation of the creative process – which is by definition an exchange and thus a collective practice, and not the work of an individual with a perfected idea.
What the previous series of assemblies have produced is a close-knit community of international artists based in Brussels. Now it is the time to leave the assemblies to members of this community that has been built up. That is why, for this series David Bernstein, a participant in the assemblies of the first hour, takes the lead. The emphasis is on strengthening and enriching existing cultural practices by bringing them together. In this way we hope to enrich the cultural exchange in Brussels with unexpected meetings. Collective exchange and collaboration thus form the basis of the assemblies. It is therefore relevant that the assemblies of the Chapelle Sessions will take place in Level Five, a floor with workplaces for about 75 artists, architects, designers, and thinkers in the former office of the director of Actiris Gregor Chapelle, with a view on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
Specifically for this series of assemblies will be the input of David Bernstein, who approaches the assemblies from his own practice as an artist and also invites people to come together here. In his work he uses and transforms everyday objects to weave stories around them. These objects and stories are activated in carefully created environments for encounter and hospitality. Tactility is important but also distortion of both the object and the language that is woven around the object. In this way he tries to bring the participants into a curious and cheerful state of mind. He sees the assemblies as a moment where things can be stretched, shifted and combined; a melting pot, a slowly boiling stove of works of art and art conversations.
Gregor Chapelle director of Actiris in his former office, now the location for the TMBR assemblies at Level Five.
