2020-2021 program

The Boghossian Foundation is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 program for the Villa Empain in Brussels. 

Our current exhibition Mappa mundi, Contemporary cartographies explores various contemporary representations of the world’s mapping, through the works of thirty-three artists of twenty nationalities. The exhibition is curated by Alfred Pacquement, former Director of the Musée national d’Art moderne at the Centre Pompidou. The display ends on October 4, and, despite the Covid closure, has proven to be a spectacular attendance success. Artists list: Malala Andrialavidrazana, Art and Language, Yto Barrada, Alighiero Boetti, Marcel Broodthaers, Mircea Cantor, Claude Closky, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Wim Delvoye, Erik Dietman, Éric Duyckaerts, Charles and Ray Eames, Ólafur Eliasson, Öyvind Fahlström, Philippe Favier, Luigi Ghirri, Marco Godinho, Shilpa Gupta, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Bernard Heidsieck, Emilio Isgrò, Nelson Leirner, Sol LeWitt, Cristina Lucas, Rudi Mantofani, Vik Muniz, Aung Myint, Iván Navarro, Rivane Neuenschwander, Marwan Rechmaoui, David Renaud, Chéri Samba, Qiu Zhijie.

Open since September 17, the exhibition Aleppo, a 5,000 year journey, is an immersive and interactive exhibition dedicated to the history of the ancient city of Aleppo. Conceived by Iconem, it unveils several major sites, remnants of the Syrian architecture.

Opening on October 22, The Light House is dedicated to different manifestations of light, through numerous contemporary installations and light sculptures. The artists list includes Jean-Michel Alberola, Mounir Fatmi, Mona Hatoum, Kimsooja, Joseph Kosuth, Martial Raysse, Erwin Redl, Charles Sandinson, Thomas Schütte, James Turrell and Franz West. Eager to defend the idea that culture is like light, the very essence of what holds darkness at bay, The Light House will also expand outside the Foundation to several venues. A path of light along Avenue Franklin Roosevelt will connect the Villa to both the center and the periphery of the city. 

The project will also symbolically take over other leading cultural venues in Belgium and internationally. Designer Dennis Parren’s piece, CMYK Corner, will light up in partner museums until January 31, 2021, including Wiels (Brussels), KANAL (Brussels), BOZAR (Brussels), MuHKA (Antwerp), CID Grand-Hornu (Hornu), BPS22 (Charleroi), Institut du monde arabe (Paris), MUDAM (Luxembourg), Parajanov Museum (Yerevan), and Sursock Museum (Beirut).

The exhibition Icons, by Henri Loyrette, the former Director of Musée du Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, will be inaugurated on March 4, 2021. From early icons from Europe and the Middle East to modern and contemporary works, icons have inspired many believers, as well as artists, throughout the ages. The exhibition unveils how spiritual dimensions have been incorporated into artworks since antiquity.

For the past ten years, the Boghossian Foundation’s Artist-in-Residency-program has invited more than two hundred visual artists, choreographers, writers, musicians, and curators to live and work together. 

Following the success of the 2020 edition, the second Limited Edition Art Fair (LEAF) will open from February 5 to 7, 2021. Dedicated to prints and multiples, it will once again bring together international publishers, specialized galleries and prominent Belgian institutions. Additionally, LEAF will present editions of former residents.

The loss of the poet and musician Jacques Coursil in June has led the Foundation to dive into the archives of the marathon organized by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, and artist and curator Asad Raza, on the opening of the exhibition Mondialité in April 2017. Reconnecting with the memory of Coursil, the Foundation has commissioned a video homage piece from artist Julien Creuzet. 

About the Boghossian Foundation
The Boghossian Foundation was created in 1992 by Jean and Albert Boghossian, jewelers of Armenian origin. The Foundation undertakes social and educational projects in Lebanon and Armenia. Open since 2010, the Villa Empain, an Art Deco masterwork, is a Center for art and dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures. 

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this fall, it has welcomed over 600,000 visitors since its opening and is led since 2016 by General Manager Louma Salamé.