The collection XXVII – East of 4°24'
Event
M HKA, Antwerp
03 March 2011 - 21 August 2011
Since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and the year of the *Magiciens de la terre* exhibition at Beaubourg, the hegemony of Western art has declined and other cultural regions and traditions have come into view. In most cases this was accompanied by radical social and cultural changes. The M HKA has undertaken to chart the contemporary art from these other cultural regions. This explains why recent acquisitions have included work by artists from Egypt, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iraq, India and China. In this way the museum is steadily building up a global collection. The basis for this presentation is the literary event Mind the Book. This ‘international festival for the mind’ stimulates a meeting of minds between writers and readers. It challenges other artistic disciplines to come up with points of view, opinions and confrontations. This is a challenge that the M HKA is only too happy to take up. Jef Lambrecht, a journalist who for years reported from the Middle East and who was one of the initiators of Mind the Book, invited Belgian artist friends to take part in an exhibition in which they enter into confrontation with ‘the East’. Each artist presents their very personal reflection on the subject. The presentation of works from the collection joins in with works by artists associated in the broadest possible sense with the East. In collaboration with deSingel, international Arts Campus, Antwerp and Vooruit Arts Centre, Ghent
