Clarisse Bruynbroeck, ‘Veerle’s tools are on the table’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Clarisse Bruynbroeck, ‘Veerle’s tools are on the table’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Babs Decruyenaere, ‘Mobile #065’, 2020, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Babs Decruyenaere, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of a Poem’, 2020, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Installation view, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Ignace Cami, ‘Hotspot’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Ralph Collier, ‘Day and Date Release #4: L’anglais sans peine’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Victoria Adam, ‘If you do not have a password, you will need a password (1-7)’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Benedikt Terwiel, ‘Verlauf: Karl-Marx-Strasse 60 – Oranienstrasse 38’, 2021, photo by Ligia Poplawska 
Isabelle Krieg, ‘Discover the world’, 2001-2003, and Geert Vanoorlé, ‘Icarus’, 2021, (formerly ‘Day light’, 2018), photo by Ligia Poplawska
6 February – 21 March 2021
Valerie_traan Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
Co-curated with Clarisse Bruynbroeck & Veerle Wenes
Exhibited artists: Victoria Adam (UK), BC Architects (BE), Clarisse Bruynbroeck (BE), Ignace Cami (BE), Ralph Collier (BE), Babs Decruyenaere (BE), DRDH Architects (UK), Benedikt Terwiel (DE), Unfold x Liam Reeves (BE, UK)
Here, a scratch on the hardwood floors.
There, a laugh elicited.
A nail hammered into the wall.
A conversation started.
They might seem like minor relics of ten years of exhibiting and living in the same place. But no matter how subtle, these traces capture the relentless focus of valerie_traan gallery. They testify to its distinctive perspective on objects and subjects; on the material and conceptual; on the particular and ephemeral; on the functional and the autonomous; on the public and the private; on the beautiful and the trivial.
On encountering and countering as well.
Since the opening in 2010, the encounters happening in the space of the gallery were at its core. These encounters could be understood as the myriad relationships between gallery, artists and public, with each other and amongst themselves. Yet, they also attest to the relationships between objects, carefully positioned in relation to each other, but never in permanent constellations. The relationship between art, design and architecture follows the tides of life.
The ebb and flow between projects hence rarely feels forced. There is a sense of natural rhythm, as well as of being welcome and at ease, without reservations, that characterizes valerie_traan gallery. There are not a lot of “have-to’s”: the gallery counters temporary tendencies and operates regardless of artistic or commercial obligations or concessions. Genuine contacts and meaningful practices are invariably more important. Though there often is a shared sensitivity: the poetry of the everyday, the attention to negative spaces, the aesthetics of the imperfect.
It is precisely this sensibility that the exhibition celebrates; this approach it highlights; these traces it gives the attention they deserve.
For “Traces of the Future”, several artists, designers and architects were invited to look at the gallery’s multi-layered trajectory with fresh eyes. There is a strong empathic connection with all these makers and thinkers; they speak a similar formal language, feel a personal affinity with previously exhibited work, or intervene in (the history of) the building. They present possible traces of the next chapter of the gallery, a promising time to come.
Eline Verstegen 