04 Mar 2016

'a due', Enrico Gaido and Freek Wambacq at the Italian Cultural Institute, Brussels

'a due'. Arte Contemporanea in Italia e Belgio. 1990-2015 ('in twos'. Contemporary Art in Italy and Belgium. 1990-2015), conceived and curated by Laura Viale and Maria Elena Minuto for the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, is a project that originated from the idea of creating a dialogue between a series of Italian and Belgian artists who have emerged since the 1990s up to the latest generations.

With a cycle of four appointments between November 2015 and June 2016, 'a due' will host exhibitions, encounters linked to contemporary art and a series of performances, concentrating on the expressive and content-related possibilities offered by a 'dialogical dimension' and different languages between artists coming from different cultures, experiences and generations. Each Italian will invite a Belgian to exhibit and will create a relationship of affinity or contrast between artists.

The artworks of the following pairs of artists will be exhibited: Davide Bertocchi (Modena, 1969) and Joris Van de Moortel (Ghent, 1983), Enrico Gaido (Turin, 1971) and Freek Wambacq (Brussels, 1978), Margherita Moscardini (Donoratico, 1981) and Futurefarmers (Belgium-USA, collective founded in 1994), and Laura Viale (Turin, 1967) and Stijn Cole (Ghent, 1978).


As part of this project, the Enrico Gaido – Freek Wambacq exhibition opens on 8 March with a selection of works different in technique and content, but all reflecting as a primary object the research on matter and its change in time.
Fascinated by the power relations and interactions between different materials Gaido questions the processes of equilibrium/disequilibrium that are created between material and vacuum (Marque Rouge, 2016), expansion concrete and wood (502,65cm3, 2015), explosive and gelatine (Exploding Utopia, 2013), whereas Wambacq, with his saturated prints, examines the controversial relationship that is sometimes created between the image and its surface (L'oreiller de la Belle Aurore, 2015).
Just as ideas and shapes are constantly renewed within a laboratory, in this exhibition the artists experiment continuously with their materials, which are analysed in relation to their physical characteristics, and also to their more abstract and 'immaterial' variations.
Authentic 'performances of the materials', Gaido's works radicalise the 'tensive state' between different elements, while in Wambacq's works a culinary practice is transposed into a visual practice, giving rise to magnetic abstracts stretching our (good) taste of pâtés and terrines.


Enrico Gaido (Turin, 1971) lives and works in Brussels. In 1998 he graduated in Architectural Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin and in 2004 created, together with Alessandra Lappano, the art project Portage. His works have been exhibited in international museums and institutions, such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Art Rotterdam Fair in Rotterdam, the Fondazione Merz in Turin, MACRO/La Pelanda in Rome and the Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte in Biella. Between 2006 and 2014 he worked with the 'Teatro Stabile' in Turin and in 2010 he won the 'Focus On Art and Science in the Performing Arts' prize promoted by the European Contemporary Product with his project Il Tetto.

Freek Wambacq (Brussels, 1978) lives and works in Amsterdam. In 2000 he graduated at the Sint-Lukas University College of Art & Design in Brussels and had a residency at the Gasworks in London (2015) and the Künstlerhaus Bethaniën in Berlin (2010-2011). His works have been exhibited in numerous international locations, such as WIELS in Brussels, Witte de With in Rotterdam, Middlemarch in Brussels, Objectif Exhibitions and M HKA in Antwerp, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, x Luxembourg in Luxembourg, Queen's Nails Projects in San Francisco and S.M.A.K. in Ghent. In 2011 he won the 'Young Belgian Painter's Award' promoted by the ING.


Laura Viale (Turin, 1967), artist, and Maria Elena Minuto (Rome, 1981), PhD researcher at the University of Bergamo, art historian and independent essayist, live and work in Brussels.