With the advent of art for the sake of art, it was believed for a while that artistic practise could escape the mundaneness of society. But is art not always its reflection and a concentrate of society? It is this thought that the contemporary artists Ai Weiwei and Luc Tuymans focus on for the big contemporary art exhibition of Europalia China. Through a discerning selection of recent topical works from Chinese and Belgian artists, the organisers will question this Faustian pact that today unites the artist and the art industry, creation and marketing. They ask how artists respond to this in an evolving China, caught in all its contradictions, and in the Lilliputian Belgium that made Luc Tuymans its most important artist and its dearest herald. The exhibition will then travel to the National Art Museum of China in the spring of 2010.

BOZAR Broadcast

José Manuel Barroso
congratulates BOZAR


Ai Weiwei in dialogue with
belgian art



Catalog: The State of Things. Brussels/Beijing, EN, BOZARBOOKS & LANNOO, 39.95€ www.bozarshop.com