The Great Deal of Pain(t), by El Nino76
Belgian Crew is the name of a street art exhibition that is hold in the Egmont Palace in Brussels. Every summer, the Palace opens its doors to the public when showing the work of different artists. I never noticed this Palace before even though I walk past it every day to go to work. It’s hidden behind the small park of Petit Sablon, the one with all the statues. It’s only because I saw so many pictures on social media of these marble stairs with the yellow paint spilled on it that I found out about the exhibition. (the blue-orange-purple paintings on the marble background are made by the artist Reset’81)
Clash of cultures
Croce & Delizia, by Sara Conti
The Egmont Palace was first build in 1560 and has been transformed several times over the years. The Belgian government bought the building in 1964 and today it’s used as a reception room by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The inside of the building is quite impressive. You see a lot of marble, statues, 17th century tapestry, mirrors, paintings and golden chandeliers. As you can imagine, it is quite strange to see pieces of street art in this kind of setting. I am sure the artists had a lot of fun during the creation proces! It’s a clash between old and new, classic and contemporary, legal and illegal, high culture and street culture. It sure is interesting to see.
Bomb Air
Bomb Air, by Frédéric Platéus aka Rec(to)
This is my favourite piece of the exhibition! They say that Rec(to) is quite famous in the belgian street art scene but I have to admit that I never heard of him before. He has the habit to transform letters into sculptures, like other street artists often do as well. In this case, he blew up the letters of his name. It is called a throw-up sculpture. I am really attracted to the round finished shiny form. You can even see the windows reflected in it. And the red colour works very well in this room with lots of golden details. I guess it makes me think about the shiny balloons made by Jeff Koons. They make me smile every time I see them.
Hyperfuse, Frédéric Platéus aka Rec(to)
Another work by the same artist. Again, he transformed the letters of his name, in this case REC, into a sculpture.
Visit
I think it’s really worth seeing this exhibition for several reasons:
- You get to see the inside of the Egmont Palace
- It’s free!
- The clash of the classic and the contemporary style comes as a surprise.
- They have free postcards of almost all the artworks.
On the other had, I thought it was a pity that they didn’t open up a bigger part of the building. You can see the whole exhibition in about 15 minutes, so it’s rather small. Personally, I would have preferred a little bit more explanation about the artworks and the artists.
There are just a few days left to visit Belgian Crew: until 31/08/2016. It’s open from Monday to Friday, from 12:00 until 18:00, Petit Sablon 8 in 1000 Brussels.
Curator: Pierre-Olivier Rollin
Greetings,
KOMALIBXL
