Viewer

Vidéo, 1996 - Courtesy of the artist

The previous exhibition of the Museum of Europe gave the floor to 27 Europeans. Now it’s time for Gary Hill’s Americans to welcome you. American society is a patchwork of cultures, the result of an influx of men and women from all parts of the world, including Europe. A flood that has never stopped. This exhibit evokes the fruitful exchanges between Europe and the United States.

Born in Santa Monica, Gary Hill lives and works in Seattle. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of video as art. His audiovisual installations, whether operated by the viewer’s movements or not, create virtual ‘environments.’ The passive observer becomes an active participant.

Peeping Tom

Interactive video, 2007 - Courtesy of the artist

Just like the previous work Viewer, Peeping Tom plays with the idea of looking and being looked at. This exhibition tells how two continents, Europe and North America look to and constantly follow each other, at times with suspicion, at other times with enthusiasm. In this interactive installation, the eyes of video as well as of the other visitors follow your comings and goings.

Born in 1975 in Brussels, Thomas Israël turned to video art and interactive installations after a career in the theatre world. He likes to create spaces with a total experience in which the viewer is turned into an actor. His installations have been exhibited in such venues as les Abattoirs de Toulouse, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in lille and during Europalia China in Brussels.

Yes

Neon, 2008 - Courtesy Aeroplastics contemporary gallery

Yes, the word the Americans often use to lend force to their optimism, is here formed by the Japanese yen, the euro and the American dollar. In addition to the social, political and cultural relations between Europe and the United States, the exhibition brings the economic ties to the fore as well.

Bosse Sudenburg was born in Magdeburg, germany in 1975. He studied experimental film and art at the University of Berlin. He works with various media such as installation art, painting and video. His artworks have already been shown in london, Basel, Glasgow and Rome.

XDENTITÉ,

Wood and mirror, 2006 - Courtesy of the artist

The carved black faces are packed and imprisoned in small boxes. They look at a mirror, metaphor for their own quest for identity. The artist represents people who, for one reason or another, fi nd themselves in a degrading situation that makes them lose their identity – like the African slaves who arrived in America in the 18th century.

Aged 44 and originally from the Ivory Coast, the artist currently lives and works in Essen. The tension be tween his African roots and his present position in the international art world - he himself speaks of the duality between his life story and lifestyle - emerges clearly from his sculptures and poignant drawin

Global Village People

Felt tip pen and metal, 2005 - courtesy Stella Lohaus Gallery

Sven ’t Jolle transposes and transforms Pellizza’s grand canvas, The Fourth Estate, on a metallic surface. The image of 19th century Italian workers who revolt against their miserable situation becomes for Sven’t Jolle a critical picture of globalisation, which fails to guarantee everyone’s well-being. The artist anticipates the next steps that some desperate workers will take : emigration to a better world.

The work of the Antwerp artist Sven’t Jolle blends together social, political, cultural, historical and artistic themes. His very varied work (installations, drawings, collages, sculptures), reflects a deep social and political commitment.

American Quilt

Paper, 2010 - courtesy of the artist
We asked Isabelle de Borchgrave to create a quilt, one of the pre-eminent forms of American folk art, to illustrate the European contribution to the demography of 19th and 20th century America. The artist found the inspiration for this quilt in a map of the ethnic origins of the people of the United States. She made drawings of traditional motifs from European countries and combined these in accordance with this map.
On the reverse de Borchgrave reproduced Flag, a work by Jasper Johns from 1954.

Isabelle de Borchgrave lives and works in Brussels, where she was born in 1946. She attended the Académie de dessin et des Arts décoratifs and the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles. Having finished her education she started to further develop her talent for design and styling. In the field of paper art and design Isabelle became a worldwide reference for commercial products as well as for costumes, clothing and unique, ephemeral objects. Her remarkable talent led her to create four collections of paper dresses that cover 300 years of fashion history. These collections are currently travelling the world.

The absence of ideology

Mixed media, 2005 - Aeroplastics contemporary gallery

The artist shows a suitcase whose interior is decked in red velvet. It reveals a ceremonial hammer and sickle, trapped in a spider web. McGill symbolises the fall of communism and also the disappearance of the ideological struggle between East and West - a struggle that strongly influenced the development of Western identity.

The English artist dominic McGill lives and works in New York. His works often have highly political overtones. He is known for his narrative drawings, which guide the visitor through contemporary, animated and critical stories.

Europe and America

We asked Richard Kenigsman to illustrate this last space. He did so with irony and tenderness, like an artist who has integrated the teachings of Pop Art in his work.
Here you can see an old couple that sometimes hurts each other, but that knows they’ll never let each other go.
Richard Kenigsman still lives and works in Brussels, where he was born in 1945. In an ironic, subversive and self-deprecating manner he revisits old photographs and advertising posters and uses painting, sculpture and photography to express his multi-faceted identity as a jew, a Belgian and a European – to name just a few aspects.