NO SHOW

Can a museum entertain? On the site of Brussels’ first luna park, artist duo Deborah Bowmann, musician Maoupa Mazzocchetti and twenty Brussels artists ask this question with a hint of irony. Their provisional answer is NO SHOW, a group exhibition in which art, light, sound and live performance come together in a fully immersive experience across five rooms. Visitors move between front and backstage, fact and fabrication – humour functioning as both lure and critique.

 

Much like Deborah Bowmann's former artist-run space in the Brussels borough of Saint-Gilles – which continually reinvented itself, from a shoe shop to a parking lot to their own living quarters – this exhibition also refuses easy definition. The twenty artists inhabit Deborah Bowmann’s scenography and Mazzocchetti’s soundscape. In a time where art has to vie for attention amid relentless spectacle, the artists confront the expectation to entertain. They both embrace and reject the consumption of their identities, works and narratives. Using humour and seriousness in equal measure, NO SHOW explores how an exhibition might perform itself, subtly unsettling the boundaries and expectations of the museum. 

 

 

Artists: Simon Asencio, Christiane Blattmann, Marc Buchy, Orso Caël, Ryan Cullen, Jot Fau, Mona Filleul, Luna Mahoux, Sandrine Morgante, Shaun Motsi, Vica Pacheco, Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, Emile Rubino, Sarah & Charles, Margaux Schwarz, AMARI and Kajol Singh, Mira Maria Studer, The LetterS pace Department, Yemo Park and Eleanor Ivory Weber.