Personne et les autres- Belgian Pavilion guidebook : 56th International Art Exhibition- La Biennale di Venezia 2015 / Curator & Editor: Katerina Gregos

The Belgian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale presents the work of Belgian artist Vincent Meessen together with international guest artists. Meessen’s proposal Personne et les autres breaks the tradition of Belgium’s representation in Venice to date, which has mostly featured solo or duo exhibitions of Belgian artists. It challenges the notion of the ‘national representation’ by moving away from the traditional format of a solo show and opening up to include multiple positions and viewpoints. Working in close collaboration, Meessen and curator Katerina Gregos have developed an international, thematic group exhibition, which is grounded in research-based practices. The title of the exhibition, Personne et les autres, is borrowed from a lost play by André Frankin, a Belgian art critic affiliated with the Lettrist and Situationist Internationals. The exhibition takes the history of the Pavilion and the international context of the Biennale as its point of departure; the Belgian Pavilion itself was the first foreign Pavilion to be built in the Giardini in Venice. This was during the reign of King Leopold II, a year before Congo Free State (Léopold II’s private property, claimed during the imperial powers’ ‘Scramble for Africa’ in the late nineteenth century) was handed over to the Belgian State. ​ The exhibition explores the consequences of political, historical, cultural and artistic interaction between Europe and Africa during the time of colonial modernity, and in its aftermath.

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