“When applying for this job, I was asked by the newly appointed artistic director, Christophe Slagmuylder, to pitch an idea for the first exhibition of what would be our new programme. Something that would fit his desire for Bozar to work in a more cross-disciplinary fashion. Something that would give a taste of what was to come. I realised that it would need to be a thematic group exhibition – not least because it would not be fair to ask a single artist to stand for a new artistic approach in Bozar. A theme can offer audiences various ways into an idea and, indeed, into an institution.
Given the bleak state of the world at present – as we continue to count the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, as so many brutal wars rage around the world, as the future looks so uncertain – I thought we needed to send a positive signal, to choose a theme that has always motivated people, not least artists. For, as Matisse asked in 1954, “is not love the origin of all creation?”
I was also thinking about Bozar as a place that inspires strong feelings of attachment in so many people. This was tangible in public reactions to the fire that took place in 2021 but is also expressed by so many of the people who work at Bozar, including the exhibition tour guides. At a time when certain political forces question the need for culture, it is important to highlight how much people love the arts. And for Bozar, it is important to underscore that we are a public institution, that we exist for the public. So the relationship between Bozar and its audience should be a reciprocal one of love and affection.
SUMMER OF LOVE
After picking the theme – and being picked for the job! – the next question was: where to set the limits? I decided that we would focus only on love between people and that we would include artworks made since the Summer of Love in 1967, up until today. This would allow us to look at how discussions about love have shifted over almost 60 years.
The decision to begin the scope of the exhibition with the birth of the hippie movement was also to underscore the revolutionary potential of love – as the Summer of Love was a direct reaction against the Vietnam war and closely connected to the battle for civil rights.
The exhibition’s title, Love is Louder, is taken from a work by Sam Durant – featured in the exhibition – which itself appropriates this phrase spotted on a demonstration placard. It asks the question: louder than what? The answer can be different for everybody. Louder than war? Louder than loss? You decide!
LABOUR OF LOVE
From the get-go, it was clear to me that this was not an exhibition I could curate alone. Because it should not be shaped only by my ideas about love, and because it should be a shared labour of love. I invited the whole team of Bozar Exhibitions to get involved, and everyone came up with suggestions to help sharpen the structure, the framework I had sketched out. In the end, we became a team of five people working closely on the exhibition: Christel Tsilibaris, Maïté Smeyers, Anamaría Pazmiño, Emma Dumartheray and myself.
We started by considering who were the artists who needed to be included in such a reflection on love. Certain names quickly emerged, such as Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Félix González-Torres. Then, we started doing research, reading articles, talking with artists and other curators, making sure that we avoided the obvious choices.
While gathering ideas of works to include, we developed a structure for the exhibition that would explore three ‘degrees’ of love: romantic love, love within families, but also kinship and friendship. And, more broadly, the place that love is afforded by society.
Hopefully, visitors will find love stories that remind them of their own, but also discover others that will open up new ways of considering the most important emotion that humans can express.
The Love is Louder exhibition runs from 12 October to 5 January.
