The first in a series of lectures by Koen Brams on remarkable yet overlooked figures of the Belgium art scene who have appeared and disappeared at historically significant moments in time.

In 1973 Marian Verstraeten (31 May 1951-11 February 1997) started working for radio 3 in Belgium. During that time, Verstraeten conducted interviews with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Ryman and David Hockney while simultaneously working as a translator/editor for Bozar, center for fine arts in Brussels. Afterwards, Verstraeten became editor of the art magazines +-0 and Artefactum and started working as the assistant of visual artist, art critic and theoretician Fernand Spillemaeckers who initiated the progressive Galerie MTL in Brussels.
Founded 1970, Galerie MTL provided a platform for more than a hundred exhibitions, of which mostly were dedicated to conceptual art. Many important artists at the time exhibited at the gallery among whom Sol LeWitt, Gilberto Zorio, Daniel Buren, André Cadere, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Dibbets, Mel Bochner, Joseph Kosuth, Guy Mees, Hanne Darboven, John Baldessari and Robert Ryman

Marian Verstraeten’s files provide a rich and unvarnished impression of what happened during that period.

Dear Reader,

Ginger&Piss is Kunstverein’s in-house magazine – a cross between an academic journal and a darts club newsletter. Ginger&Piss (the name a misquotation of Lawrence Weiner) is published twice yearly, with the first edition appearing in a short run. Each issue contains a maximum of five or six contributions of varying length, appropriate to the individual subject matter.

The remit of Ginger&Piss is simple; to offer an outlet for authors to say what they feel is vital (and not necessarily at all related to the art world) but were unable, unwilling or too afraid to publish previously. The concept dictates that each contributor writes under a pseudonym. The editors guarantee full anonymity.

The use of pseudonyms can be considered an answer to the cowardice of the art world, albeit a somewhat hypocritical one. By providing a platform for candid critique but at the same time allowing the author to hide behind a pseudonym, Ginger&Pisss recognizes its own complicit cowardice. In fact, Ginger&Piss fully embraces its somewhat misleading bravery, but maintains that it makes sense for now, for the current cultural climate­.
 
Loud is the subject of the first issue and it is a broad – probably far too broad – theme (if a theme at all). In fact Quiet might have been more appropriate. But perhaps a clear, ‘honest’ voice is better suggested by volume than whispering.

Krist Gruijthuijsen & Maxine Kopsa
Editors

In conjunction with the magazine’s launch, Kunstverein will host a performance
by Matthew Lutz-Kinoy

Welcome to the story of my life is a dazzling one-man musical extravaganza in which the performer and the objects presented are in a constant state of transition. Loosely based upon the life of Fassbinder’s Maria Braun, Lutz-Kinoy’s narrative follows an array of performance elements such as musical theater tropes and pop / jazz dance in which the objects, surrounding the protagonist, constantly change their meaning.