A young contemporary Art Zone
It is a key zone with promotional galleries, mostly representing today’s young avant-garde, and is allocated a prominent place, together with ‘Lineart The Art Fair’, although a clear physical distinction is made between the two.
Origin, challenge and concept ‘The border – contemporary art zone’ arose from a series of meetings that were first held in the S.M.A.K. in 2008, culminating in Sofia in May 2009 at the invitation of Philippe Van Cauteren (S.M.A.K.). The ambition grew to set out a new course. The feasibilities for a co-operation between the contemporary art world and Lineart pose a challenge.
The ‘B – New Gallery selection’ and the ‘Gigacase’ (two new projects since Lineart 2008) provided an interesting starting point. Together with ‘the Young Ones Award’, they were given a place in ‘The border’ in 2009.
This is how ‘The border – contemporary art zone’ with the work of ‘young talents’ brought together a selection of gallerists who provided a stunning presentation of the avant-garde. The twenty galleries picked for four different projects constituted an excellent selection for the first event. It deserved a follow-up, also according to Jan Hoet, who returned after making his popular speech paying tribute (to Marcel Maeyer) in order to subject the works exhibited in ‘The border’ to a closer inspection.
The fact that the organisers were of the same opinion was immediately illustrated with the publication of the independent ‘The border 09’ catalogue, designed by Studio Luc Derycke.
Only actual art galleries can acquire a place in ‘The border – contemporary art zone’. They are subjected to the judgement of a jury, curator, collector or selection committee . Quality is the critical criterion.