Fugue - Aaron Amar Bhamra & Celine Mathieu

Jester proudly presents Fugue, a duo exhibition by Aaron Amar Bhamra (°1992, AT) and Céline Mathieu (°1989, BE). For Fugue, both artists create new artworks, a publication and an edition as the result of their generous dialogue. Céline Mathieu's body of work was developed during her residency at Jester. This exhibition marks the first presentation by Aaron Amar Bhamra in Belgium. You are very welcome to attend the opening on February 15:

1 pm - Opening‍

3 pm - Conversation between the artists ‍

4 pm - Sound performance by Lukas De Clerck (more information below)‍

Ongoing - Community kitchen by Muna‍

Ongoing -Activation of Warmbed by Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers (more information below)

For this occasion, Jester organizes a shuttle bus between Brussels and Genk. For more information and registration, see here.

Fugue forms a polyphonic harmony of fleeting gestures that converge in a composition of counterpoint, inversion and echo. The title is drawn from the Latin 'fuga' (flight) and refers to two meanings: a polyphonic musical motif and a psychological state of dissociation. Aaron Amar Bhamra interweaves his backgrounds in architecture and music. The artist orchestrates recurring forms and materials, mirroring shifting personal and social archives. In her work, Céline Mathieu imagines new tactics to rewire finances and revalue close relationships.

Dissociated objects find refuge in a space that resonates with Genk's contextual history. Sounds and scents doze their sculptures asleep, while a breath swells to a breeze that ascends them on air. Transient proposals take flight to the studio and residency building, while relations, resources, thoughts and affects circulate and temporarily rest in a state of fugue.

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          On air:

At the close of the 19th century, the Kneipp sanatorium landed in Bokrijk, a village next to Genk, drawn by the abundance of clean—and therefore healthy—air. At this sanctuary, lung patients would reside to cure from tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments through hydro-, balneo- and aërotherapy. Simultaneously, the region of Genk became a renowned station d’artistes—a beloved haven for painters, scientists and writers—that flourished with the same fresh air that nourished its natural landscape. The latter fled when the mining industry of coal extraction irreversibly scarred the landscape. Oxygen was sparse in this vast network of tunnels, while its fabricators often suffered from dust lungs and other pulmonary diseases. Air thus carries the sound of many voices and the weight of many histories—on the one hand healing through purity and presence, on the other harmful through pollution and absence. Air quality and health remain therefore inseparable and indispensable to all life, then and now.

Fugue was produced in collaboration with Phileas - The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art and with the support of the Flemish Government, the City of Genk, the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES) of Austria and the Austrian Cultural Forum Brussels.

Sound performance by Lukas De Clerck (4 pm):

Lukas De Clerck (°1994, BE) is a musician and sound-artist, living in Brussels. His artistic practice is currently centered around the Aulos, an ancient Greco-Roman, double-reeded double pipe, that got extinct more than a millennium ago. After several years of delving deep in the practice of Aulos reed making and playing replicas of ancient instruments, he opens up his inevitably auto-didact artistic output. Following the desire to strip the instrument from its enigmatic past, De Clerck created a new, contemporary Aulos: The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas.

Warmbed by Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers (ongoing):

It Warm bed (2020-2021) is an installation by artist-architects Ciel Grommen (°1989, BE) and Maximiliaan Royakkers (°1988, BE). The permanent installation Warm bed was developed for FLACC/CIAP (Jester's forerunners) and C-mine as an architectural work that is in constant dialogue with its environment. Inspired by the Chinese “kang bed” and the Russian “pechka stove”, this brick sculpture is heated from within and thus creates a welcoming atmosphere. With the help of local experts and enthusiasts, the artists produced a unique re-edition of the “Winterslag Devils” — the bricks that were once produced entirely from the leftover material from the Winterslag mine. These stones were then used to build an open-air sculpture layer by layer.