M Leuven, City of Leuven and Cera provide oxygen to emerging talent in times of corona

Given the current circumstances, they have fewer opportunities to show and sell their work. The City of Leuven and Cera have each made €50,000 available. More than €15,000 was added thanks to the 271 donations to the crowdfunding campaign ‘Art is for everyone’ run by M-LIFE, the museum fund of M Leuven. The City of Leuven, Cera and the donors support the artists by purchasing 37 works. All purchases will be shown in the exhibition ‘The Constant Glitch’ at M.

Strong combination

“The strength of this project lies in the combination of private and public funding. The City, Cera and the public clearly recognised the need to support emerging talent. Since March 2020, the world has been in a permanent state of emergency due to the global pandemic and the consequences for the cultural sector have been very severe,” says Denise Vandevoort, chairwoman of M and alderman for culture. “Thanks to the funds raised, we can make the future of art just a bit more secure. We provide support in times when emerging talent can really use a bit of a push. I would like to thank the 271 donors and our partners, because they send a clear signal: art is vital.”

Lieven Vandeputte, Head of Community Relations at Cera, concurs: “It is in times of crisis that our cooperative values stand out more than ever: investing together in prosperity and well-being. Through this acquisition campaign, we are in the first instance supporting the artists, but also everyone who can enjoy them and, by extension, the whole of society. So we are proud of the result.”

About the selection and ‘The Constant Glitch

An expert committee, made up of Eva Wittocx and Valerie Verhack (curators M Leuven), Hicham Khalidi (director Jan Van Eyck Academie Maastricht) and Louis-Philippe Van Eeckhoutte (independent curator), selected the artists based on several criteria. Eva Wittocx, curator of Contemporary Art at M Leuven, explains: “We took our time to make a broad and diverse selection. In close consultation, we chose 19 artists and 37 artworks based on criteria such as quality, place in the Belgian art scene, a certain continuity in the work, and the media in which these artists work.”

The selection includes films, paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, screen prints, textiles and sound works. The selected artists are: Leyla Aydoslu, Younes Baba-Ali, Béatrice Balcou, Christiane Blattmann, Aleksandra Chaushova, Dieter Durinck, Alexis Gautier, Hamza Halloubi, Olivia Hernaïz, Vedran Kopljar, Katja Mater, Hana Miletić, Meggy Rustamova, Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni, Kato Six, Gintauté Skvernyté, Ken Verhoeven, Oriol Vilanova and Anna Zacharoff.

Eva Wittocx continues: “The title of the exhibition ‘The Constant Glitch’ is taken from an acquired sculpture by Christiane Blattmann. It refers to the disruption that has been present in all layers of society since the beginning of the pandemic. This project was created to provide oxygen to emerging talent, so that artists can receive support through acquisition and can continue to bring their work to the public, from a necessity born of the corona crisis. We see this as an important role for M as a museum. M is committed to showing the work and also to continuing to follow these artists and include their works in future presentations.”

Practical information

The Constant Glitch’ runs from 2 April to 5 September in the halls of the M. All information and tickets can be found at mleuven.be/the-constant-glitch. More about the artists, their work and about M-LIFE, the museum fund of M and the crowdfunding at m-life.be.

The project is being realised with the support of Cera, the City of Leuven and M-LIFE, the fund of M managed by the King Baudouin Foundation.