MIMA Contemporary art museum first exhibition ‘ City Lights’, Brussels

The Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) will be opening its doors in March 2016, and is a contemporary art Museum, unique of its kind in Europe, that will enable the public to explore a history of culture 2.0. The people behind the project are Alice Van Den Abeele, Raphaël Cruyt and Michel and Florence de Launoit.

The MIMA occupies an iconic location in the centre of Brussels: the former Bellevue breweries, along the Canal in Molenbeek, 1300 m2 spread across 4 floors, a multifaceted project driving the regeneration of the canal district.The entrance hall is a big room with old red bricks and concrete beams, and houses the reception, which features an eclectic selection of items and the restaurant. The museum then opens onto a space for the projection of video films. The first, second and third floor are dedicated to temporary exhibitions and to the museum’s permanent collection. The 4th floor is reserved for the workshop. The roof affords a panoramic view of the canal.

City Lights is the first exhibition mounted at the MIMA and presents the work of five well-known American artists. City Lights is here used as a metaphor to refer to the 5 artists who have learnt to communicate instant and playfully empathetic joy through their works, in museums and in the cities. They have become popular through urban projects which people discover by chance on a street corner or on the social networks.

Swoon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO and the artistic duo FAILE are genuine representatives of Culture 2.0. It is in this capacity, but also because they know each other but have never had the opportunity to work together before, that they have been brought together to share the billing of City Lights and to kick off the collective adventure of the MIMA.

Maya Hayuk is from Brooklyn started as a photographer of the new york punk rock scene in the 1990s before gaining international prominence for her monumental abstract and psychedelic paintings.

Caledonia Dance Curry aka Swoon constructs installations combining drawing, printing and at times architectural sculpture.

FAILE Created in 1999 and based in Brooklyn, FAILE is the artistic partnership of Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller.The artistic duo are known for their post-punk pop aesthetic of pulp images, which they glue, paint and print in many media and installations.

MOMO works in the public space and in his studio with home-made tools. He uses masonry techniques, for instance, to sketch mural paintings. The aesthetic is abstract, pared down, post-digital and is applied to walls and to three-dimensional installations.

A great addition to Brussels, urban contemporary art and to Europe!

This exhibition runs from 24.3.16 until 28.8.16

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