This is the archived netwerk-art.be. Please refer to netwerkaalst.be for our activities from September 2017 onwards.

group exhibition

Åbäke / Bernd Behr / Ben Cain / Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost / David Goldenberg / Patrick Guns / Conor Kelly / Maia Naveriani / Maia Naveriani / Kristin Posehn / Audrey Reynolds / Jozef Somerlinck

Fordham

SU 07.05 — SA 10.06 2006

Met werk van Åbäke / Bernd Behr / Ben Cain / Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost / David Goldenberg / Patrick Guns / Conor Kelly / Maia Naveriani / Maia Naveriani / Kristin Posehn / Audrey Reynolds / Jozef Somerlinck

Fordham is an art initiative from London, operated by Man Somerlinck. Somerlinck is concerned with a certain, rather specific presentation of a question about the position of contemporary art in society. The projects that Somerlinck realizes with Fordham in London, are characterized by an intuitive insight in a dynamic fragment of the London art scene, a fragment that is fascinating, yet not connected to an institutionally confirmed circuit. The fact that the activities of Fordham are taking place in London, does not mean that Somerlinck only works with British artists. London is a metropolis, where artists of all nationalities live and work, and Fordham also offers a cross-section of this aspect.

Because of this specific horizon, a cosmopolitan situation within a local circuit searching to be embedded in society, Netwerk invites Man Somerlinck to curate an exhibition. Supported by Netwerk, he applies his expertise to constitute a dialogue between Belgian artists and people from that particular, artistic scene in London. This resulted in an exhibition in which the debate on the role of art in society is central. This exhibition shifts between two opposites, on the one hand the necessity, on the other the impossibility of making an artistic statement in contemporary, social order. Some artists choose to approach this paradox from the sidelines, with work based on reflection and reconstruction, others search direct confrontation and situate their activities in the immediate, social environment.