PRESS RELEASE: BELGIAN CONTEMPORARY ART TAKES PRIDE OF PLACE IN FRONT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

PUBLISHED ON 10/01/2024

The Artists’ Parliament is a public space exhibition project to mark the rotating presidencies of the Council of the European Union. The chosen European contemporary artists will represent their country with an exhibition on the Esplanade Solidarność in front of the European Parliament, following the calendar of the rotating presidencies. The organisers have chosen Joël Benzakin and Jeanne Mouffe as the curatorial team to select the artists.

The Office of the Commissioner for Europe and International Organisations of the Brussels-Capital Region, the European Parliament and their partners are pleased to present the exhibition L’Aire d’un Souffle (‘The space of a breath’) by Ann Veronica Janssens and Michel François, the first exhibition organised by The Artists’ Parliament. The exhibition began on 10 January 2024 to mark the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, for which artists Ann Veronica Janssens and Michel François were chosen to present a specific project. Internationally renowned artists, they both represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 1999. Ann Veronica Janssens and Michel François exhibit their work all over the world and have pieces in the collections of the most prestigious institutions.

The inauguration was marked with two events. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony in the morning gathered policymakers from the European and Brussels landscape for speeches by Rainer Wieland (Vice-President of the European Parliament), Karine Lalieux (Belgian Federal Minister) and Rudi Vervoort (Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region). In the afternoon, a crowd of onlookers from the world of art and culture came the Esplanade to check out the new work and hear speeches from Ans Persoons (Brussels State Secretary) and Alain Hutchinson (Brussels Commissioner for Europe).

After Belgium, the next country represented will be Hungary from July to December 2024, followed by Poland from January to June 2025 and Denmark from July to December 2025. Each country taking over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union is invited to support the artistic project selected to represent it.