Drawing From Where We Are (1st edition)
28.09 - 15.12.2024
Eleven Steens, Brussels (BE)

© Lola Pertsowsky & Nicholas Goudket

Sharing porous boundaries with language, drawing is a universal means of expression and communication that enables those who practise it to cultivate a unique relation to the world. To better understand its evolution and grasp its scope, both aesthetic and political, the exhibition Drawing From Where We Are presents a selection of over forty works by recent graduates from Belgian art schools.

Conceived in conjunction with Art on Paper and Brussels Drawing Week 2024, Drawing From Where We Are showcases artists whose practices are deliberately transdisciplinary, encompassing a broad spectrum of media such as installation, photography, video, sculpture and performance. They use drawing not only as a way of representation, but also as a tool for observing and analysing the present.

Is there a way of perceiving the reality that is specific to drawers? Drawing, with its inherent capacity for revision and approximation, and its unfinished nature, creates spaces for nuance and uncertainty. Drawing From Where We Are questions what this medium offers a generation that, through it, creates new narratives and engages with the complexities of the artist’s condition.

This exhibition is the culmination of a year's observation and travels to meet these artists, most of whom were still students preparing for their diplomas. One desire at the outset : to take Brussels as a starting point and gradually to step away from it, deconstructing our own perspective on the centre to see how practices and education are evolving elsewhere. This journey led us to discover new connections with landscapes, territories, and communities, and to see, with each visit, the emergence of common concerns and fields of investigations.

Drawing From Where We Are can be seen as a map of the emerging Belgian art scene, though one that is infinitely subjective, traced by our encounters with the artists, students or teachers, who welcomed us into their studios. Their dedication and passion shape the landscape of contemporary drawing and guided us to refine our own vision at each stage of this project.

^{Participating artists: Azad Avaguian-Eurdekian, Helena Berg, Kato Bouckaert, Mathilda Buche, Juana Bustamante, Marguerite Canguilhem, Margot Dauwe, Audrey Delogne, Solina Denis, Bauke Driessens, Rozafa Elshan, Hanne Engels, Viktor Froyen, Benjamin Huynh, Emilie Magnan, Laura Magny, Mima Mateus Pereira, Florian Schaff, Mey Semtati, Nathan Solioz and Nathan Vandenberghe.}

Visited schools: ESA Académie Beaux-Arts Tournai / ARTS² - École Supérieure des Arts de Mons / ArBA-EsA - Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles / Beaux-arts de Liège – École supérieure des arts (BAL-ÉSA) / ENSAV La Cambre - École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre (Brussels) / ERG - École de recherche graphique (Brussels) / Karel de Grote Hogeschool (KdG) - Campus Sint Lucas Antwerpen / KASK & Conservatorium - School of Arts Gent / LUCA School of Arts (Brussels) / LUCA School of Arts (Ghent) / Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp - AP arts.

Exhibition partners: Eleven Steens, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Art on Paper, Brussels Drawing Week and The Drawer.

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Sungyoon Ahn

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