Inventories #2 will run as part of a wider cultural programme at The Cass London Metropolitan University entitled ‘What About Belgian Architecture?’. The season aims to promote Wallonia-Brussels architecture and will involve a series of lectures and exhibitions that will run from April-October 2017.
The exhibition showcases selected works from the third volume of Belgian publication Inventaires. The book published by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Architecture Unit) focuses on contemporary Belgian Architecture and was founded in 2010. The publication is run by managing editors and curators of the exhibition Xavier Lelion and Anne Sophie Nottebaert of Brussels-based architectural practice Coton_Lelion_Nottebaert.The book is available online and from the nearby Whitechapel Gallery bookshop.
Comics are a hallmark of Belgian culture and artists have regularly used this medium to respond to architecture. In the exhibition, comic strips by Belgium artists explore the narrative of each selected building and are presented next to architectural plans by the architects. These works display the visual and experiential relationship between people and the built environment.
The exhibition will feature mounted display racks for visitors to read each architectural project in a comic like way, each display omprising drawings, photography and texts on a Belgian building.
Inventories #2 presents an up to date survey on architectural developments within Wallonia and Brussels by partnering illustration with architecture. The experimental approach of the exhibition aligns with The Cass’s dedication to cross-disciplinary arts education.
As part of this collaboration between The Cass and Wallonia-Brussels Architecture, an inaugural lecture will take place on 6 April on the theme of Urban Density by MSA and Dessin et Construction. The event will be introduced by William Mann of architectural practice Witherford Watson Mann, who commented on the exhibition:
The exhibition showcases selected works from the third volume of Belgian publication Inventaires. The book published by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Architecture Unit) focuses on contemporary Belgian Architecture and was founded in 2010. The publication is run by managing editors and curators of the exhibition Xavier Lelion and Anne Sophie Nottebaert of Brussels-based architectural practice Coton_Lelion_Nottebaert.The book is available online and from the nearby Whitechapel Gallery bookshop.
Comics are a hallmark of Belgian culture and artists have regularly used this medium to respond to architecture. In the exhibition, comic strips by Belgium artists explore the narrative of each selected building and are presented next to architectural plans by the architects. These works display the visual and experiential relationship between people and the built environment.
The exhibition will feature mounted display racks for visitors to read each architectural project in a comic like way, each display omprising drawings, photography and texts on a Belgian building.
Inventories #2 presents an up to date survey on architectural developments within Wallonia and Brussels by partnering illustration with architecture. The experimental approach of the exhibition aligns with The Cass’s dedication to cross-disciplinary arts education.
As part of this collaboration between The Cass and Wallonia-Brussels Architecture, an inaugural lecture will take place on 6 April on the theme of Urban Density by MSA and Dessin et Construction. The event will be introduced by William Mann of architectural practice Witherford Watson Mann, who commented on the exhibition:
“There's a wide diversity of conditions across Brussels and Wallonia, with interesting parallels irelation to London and Britain - the tensions of the metropolis, the evolution of the small cities, the challenge of abandoned industrial sites - but also small but profound differences. As shown at this exhibition at The Cass, the architects of French-speaking Belgium have responded to these conditions with a lot of invention, a bit of wit, and an impressive sense of social solidarity."
The collaboration will run throughout the Autumn with a second exhibition: enter: five Architectures in Belgium will run at the Cass Bank Gallery from 25 September 23 October 2017. The exhibition will showcase five outstanding recent Belgian buildings, including Polyvalent Infrastructure by Baukunst which was shortlisted for the EU Mies Awards 2017.
