Garage Cosmos

    • DOUBLE GRAM
    • François Curlet
    • 16 December – 24 December 2023

    The exhibition marks the release of the book Double Gram (928 pages, A4. Co-edition by Éditions du Caïd and Jour Nuit), which comprises drawings by François Curlet posted on Instagram between 2017 and 2023. 

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  • We are pleased to announce the second exhibition of Jean-François Bory at Garage Cosmos, titled "A Varnish on Nothingness." Bory is renowned as a French essayist, art critic, and poet, an ambiguous heir to the artistic movements of the 1920s, such as Apollinaire, Tzara, but also Cendrars, precisely the Cendrars of the "Prose of the Trans-Siberian" targeted in a new version of "Abracadada," a poem originally conceived in 1977, printed on a large 30-meter roll displayed in the exhibition.

    The exhibition takes its name from a novel by Bory published in 2023. Bory describes it as "a festival of visual poems, where a play with 26 characters is performed in the dark, where the indiscipline of words is rewarded with golden sheets." Bory draws from the words of the pre-Socratic philosopher Gorgias (of Leontinoi), often mentioned in Plato's dialogues: "Before reaching the realm of silence, every word will be an ornament of darkness." Careful examination is required for the skillfully crafted papers, a selection of which is displayed in showcases. 

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    Jean-François Bory, Un vernis sur le néant, 2022


  • With: Art & Language, Jacques André, Ben Vautier, Antoine Boute et Jeanne Pruvot-Simonneaux, Marcel Broodthaers, Anne Catherine Caron, Henri Chopin, Guy Debord, François Dufrêne, Jean-Pierre Gillard, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Maurice Lemaître, Gabriel Pomerand, Dominique Rappez, Roland Sabatier, Alain Satié, Frédéric Studeny, Jacques Villeglé, Gil Wolman. 

    Isidore Isou's influence on his contemporaries appears in various forms including documents, artworks and magazine articles reporting on his controversial ideas. 

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    François Dufrêne. Le petit jeu de La Lettre « I » énigme. (1963)


  • Opening:
    10 / 09 / 2022 from 2pm to 8pm

    Adrian Eaves’ abstract paintings are explorations into, as well as odes to the expressive qualities of mark making. He deploys a variety of techniques in mixed media onto the surface, with phenomenal colour and physicality. 

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    Adrian Eaves, Big Foot, 2022


  • The path which connects the artists in this exhibition traces a red thread, one described by Marc Partouche in his eponymous book La ligne oubliée (The Forgotten Line). These artists have most often escaped the vigilance of the general public. 

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     Bob Brown, My Mosque-calligram, Circa 1920


    • ABRACADADA
    • Jean-François Bory
    • 03 September – 03 October 2020

    Reading: 4 September (19:00), 5 September (15:00)

    Abracadada is a 35 page long poem first shown in a small bookshop in Paris in 1977. It was written in the spirit of the typography of the historical avant-gardes of the first half of the century: futurism, dadaism; « sound and fury » as Shakespeare said, a story of the crash and collapse of the avant-garde that ends today.

    Jean-François Bory spent his childhood and adolescence in Southeast Asia, becoming a major figure in contemporary poetry. 

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  • Isidore Isou, is not only the founder of the Lettriste movement and author of the exceptional film Venom and Eternity (1951), he is also a novelist, painter and artist - who could be defined as conceptual - as well as the author of an economical and political body of work. 

    Isou opposes what he calls "internes" who are part of the economic circuit, and "externes" who are excluded from it, ie the youth, the inactive or anyone who is dissatisfied with their situation in society. 

    He writes in Le Soulèvement de la jeunesse et la classe ouvrière, Nouvelle Génération Lettriste n°3 (1970) "We must go further, and first form unions of pupils, students, apprentices based on "externiste" conceptions, taking into account that slavery and hierarchical over-exploitation of youths who spend energy for free to reach their desired position, is distinct from the situation of the proletariat who sells labor on the market and manufactures goods whose added value is robbed by capital."
      

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    Isidore Isou, Introduction à une reconsidération de Michel-Ange (1/20), 1986


  • As a prelude to the book on the multifaceted artist Isidore Isou, poet, painter, filmmaker, art theorist and sociologist to be published by La Lettre Volée on 19 December 2019 and echoing the exhibition on Romanian art at the Center for Fine Arts organised for the festival Europalia Romania, Garage Cosmos presents Isidore Isou, Avenue de l'Exposition. The show is an attempt to reconstitute the strangely forgotten exhibition of 1962 that brought together some 200 works in the cramped space of a gallery which has now become a pizzeria. 

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    Isidore Isou, Largo, 1961


    • Ink Sculptures
    • Salvador Dalí, Isidore Isou, David Mach, Sarkis, Gil Wolman
    • 11 May – 26 May 2019

    For the occasion of Ink Brussels 2019, Garage Cosmos presents artworks by Salvador Dalí, Isidoare Isou, David Mach, Sarkis and Gil Wolman, that incorporate ink as a three-dimensional medium. The ink is contained in bottles, jars, bowls or glasses. 

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    David Mach, Fallen Angel, 1982


  • Carlos Kusnir is a painter who has lived in Buenos Aires, Bratislava, Prague, Paris and Marseille. He has been active since the early 80s. 

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    Carlos Kusnir, Retouches, 1987


  • Johan Muyle is a sculptor active in the field of contemporary art since 1983. Since 1992 he has dedicated himself to customising Harley Davidsons. 

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    Johan Muyle, Sioux in Paradise (Now Futur) 2016 + Tara Gomes > Garage Cosmos / © Johan Muyle © Pascal Schyns


  • Jacques André and Thierry Waegemans exhibit together at Garage Cosmos, one closed, stacked books of his choice aligned on the floor as on a shelf, and the other books open to read, manuscripts shown flat.
     
    Invited by Jacques André, Thierry Waegemans will exhibit his notebooks covered with writings and drawings, which he entitles The Library of Misery. Among his sources he does not quote the very situationist On the Poverty of Student Life but, according to an email he just sent us, quotes instead: “1 / The Captain Fracasse by Théophile Gautier, the story of which begins at the Castle Misery. 

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  • Présence Panchounette est un groupe d’artistes créé en 1968, auto dissous en 1990, d’inspiration post situationniste mais il faut insister sur une influence tout aussi notable, celle du surréalisme belge. Celle d'un Marcel Mariën pour sa production d’objets et de Louis Scutenaire pour son sens de l’aphorisme. 

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    Présence Panchounette, Le poids de la culture, 1982


  • The exhibition brings together calligraphic works from different horizons, from East Asia to South America, by way of Belgium with artists Christian Dotremont and Serge Vandercam. Beyond cultural differences, one notices mental and visual affinities, no doubt the result of a shared modernity. 

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    Jean-Pierre Gillard. La démarche infinitésimale n°1, 1967 


  • A presentation of three of Keith Sonnier’s light works with two semi-figurative neon works from the Sel Series of 1978 which reproduce Chinese characters and an early light installation from 1970. Keith Sonnier, radicaly reinvented sculpture in the late 1960s along with his contemporaries Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, Richard Serra and Barry Le Va. 

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    Keith Sonnier, Spotted Square Diptych, 1970


    • Yard
    • Allan Kaprow
    • 20 April – 23 April 2017

    Yard (1961) is one of the environments conceived by Allan Kaprow as an actor on the vibrant New York art scene of the early 1960s. Yard is a landmark work of the period and, in the artist’s own practice, marks the transition between the assemblage-collages of the 1950s and the happening, which was emerging at that time. 

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    Allan Kaprow, Yard (detail), 1961-2017


  • The exhibition takes as its point of departure six Manifestos by Isidore Isou: from Imaginary or Infinitesimal Art, 1956 to the Manifesto of Excoordism or Mathematical and Artistic Teysynism, 1991. The essay by Christian Schlatter, revolving around a reading of these Manifestos and a selection of works from the collection, would like to show that an aesthetic particle, element specific to each art and infinity, should be put in the plural. 

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    Théâtre de l’Ambigu, 1965. Photo: Jean-Claude DEUTSCH. Copyright: Paris Match.


  • L’éthique de la forme ou l’esthétique de la logique


    L’histoire de l’art comme histoire de l’évolution formelle

    L’histoire de l’art ne voit dans l’art qu’une succession de styles ; elle en fait une série d’unités formelles, pures et uniformes, la dernière étant toujours supérieure à celle qui l’a précédée. D’après cette théorie, l’art n’a de cesse de s’améliorer. 

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    Braco Dimitrijević, Post-Historic Diagram, 1976


    • Artists' Telegrams
    • Christine Kozlov, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Emilio Prini, Jean Schwind
    • 19 April – 04 June 2016

    An exhibition including telegrams from Christine Kozlov, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Emilio Prini and Jean Schwind.  

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    Filippo Tommaso Marintetti, Télégramme 41, 1914-1915


  • An exhibition of works including charts and diagrams by amongst others lettrists and conceptual artists.

    Vito Acconci, Shusaku Arakawa, Art & Language (Terry Atkinson Michael Baldwin), Braco Dimitrijević, Raymond Hains, Isidore Isou, Joseph Kosuth, Dennis Oppenheim, Dominique Rappez, Roland Sabatier.

    Documents from: René Lavendhomme, Kurt Lewin, Gershon Scholem, Pierre Soury  

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    Isidore Isou, Schémas pour rendre plus visible la conception isouienne du spectacle, 1953.


  • Jean-Pierre Gillard reste aujourd’hui tel qu’il était, modeste, discret, presque absent, indifférent aux sollicitations du monde de l’art. Il fait de l’hermétisme mallarméen un mode de vie, une manière d’être, un jeu d’ombres, une vie faite d’ellipses. 

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    Jean-Pierre Gillard, La démarche cathédrale n°1, 2009


  • A partial view of a strand of a continuous activity traversing the twentieth century with art works by Marinetti, Duchamp, Isou, Chopin, Mac Low, Filliou, Arakawa, Sabatier, Hamilton Finley, Brown, Art & Language, Burgin, Kosuth, Kozlov, Czerkinsky and Présence Panchounette.  

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    Filippo Marinetti, Le Mesurage futuriste, 1927


  • The general rhythm of this infinitesimal and supertemporal work is spread over three distinct sections, the components of which should preferably be offered to the public in three different rooms. If the premises are not big enough, it could be put on in three separate spaces of the same exhibition or presentation venue where the organisers have tried to create a sequence or direction for visitors.

    Chapter I: This first chapter comprises 23 aesthapeirist ensembles which spectators will see on a wall, near the entrance, but on the edge of the positions in which the supertemporal expressions inscribed in the other sectors of this piece will later take place. 

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    Roland Sabatier, Détail de De la loi de la jungle à la loi des créateurs , 1975


  • Is it possible to make films with words? To borrow the terminology put forward by Austin, can cinema in certain instances be performative?1 Can a linguistic utterance take the place of the film itself? 

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    Roland Sabatier, Les Preuves , film infinitésimal, 1966


  • Global art and creation open to all in the art of the 60s-70s: from the delegation of the making of an artwork in favor of a knowing public to the transfer of artistic initiative to a public of creators. 

    Artists asking other people to carry out their artwork have been subject to recent interest. 

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    Robert Filliou, Permanent Creation Tool-box., 1969


  • It is often said of the work of Art & Language that it is characterised by irony and parody. We think that this description is mistaken. 

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    Mayo Thompson, Paula Ramsden, Kathryn Bigelow, Christine Koslov, Mel Ramsden, Jesse Chamberlain


    • Palissades
    • Raymond Hains
    • 21 May – 21 June 2012

    Raymond Hains is an affichiste, an artist who works with posters who was associated for a while with the Nouveaux Réalistes, but he soon shrugged off such labels. In this respect, the work he did with construction site boarding, the Palissades, is exemplary. 

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    Palissade des Halles, 1985