Dada, surrealism, situationism, fluxus, performance art, pop art and conceptual art: in a large number of influential artistic movements of the 20th century there is a lot of humour. In contemporary art, too, ‘the funny’ is a major player, more than ever. Cakehouse, an Antwerp artists’ initiative of Lieven Segers and Michèle Matyn, has chosen an interesting angle for The tragic and the funny meet again: the combination of humour and tragedy.
According to Cakehouse the hilarious and the sinister are either complementary in the arts or act as each other’s counterpart. Consider this: only when you’ve been disarmed by a joke can you experience the dark, secondary layer of the representation. Or the other way round: the poignant tragedy in a work of art may be undeniable, but the humour with which it is presented makes it bearable. In the exhibition you will see what the meeting of the tragic and the comical may engender in talented artists. Not a comic act, nor a vale of tears, but art on the cutting edge.
For this rendez-vous a number of the artists who took part in the Antwerp event called of A meeting between the tragic and the funny now meet again, but there are also new names and creations to be seen.
With: Fred Bervoets (BE), Olaf Breuning (CH), Bissy Bunder (DE/BE), Vaast Colson (BE), Anton Cotteleer (BE), Michael Dans (BE), Bart Van Dijck (BE), Geert Goiris (BE), Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys (BE), Kati Heck (DE), Nick Hullegie (NL), Marijn van Kreij (NL), Tom Liekens (BE), Xavier Noiret-Thomé (FR), Julien Prévieux (FR), David Shrigley (GB), Walter Swennen (BE).
OPENING NIGHT FRI 24.04.09 at 2100hrs
The tragic and the funny meet again opens with performances by Messieurs Delmotte and the collective Bissy Bunder. Admission free.
OPENING HOURS
MONDAY 13h00 – 18h00
TUESDAY TO FRIDAY 10h00 – 20h30
SATURDAY 13h00 – 20h30
SUNDAY 13h00 – 17h00
On 30 April De Brakke Grond is closed.
Admission free.