++++++

+++Club Solo+++

+++

After a unique series of solo exhibitions, Breda-based artist space Club Solo will conclude its programme in 2024.

This publication is a three-part summary of the past ten years. The first part contains an overview of ten years of Club Solo, along with two personal essays in which artist and writer Frits Dijcks examines this period. His essays are followed by a programme timeline and a visual collage of events that have taken place at Club Solo. Each volume is accompanied by two randomly selected publications by artists whose work has been shown at Club Solo. 

SOLO's: It Is Part Of An Ensemble, Peggy Franck, Christiaan Bastiaans, Peter Morrens, Dick Verdult, Wineke Gartz, Marcel Pinas, Caroline Coolen, Ansuya Blom, Jean Bernard Koeman, Aaron van Erp, Kees Goudzwaard, Marjolijn Dijkman, Cécile Verwaaijen, Wafae Ahalouch, Michèle Matyn, Merijn Bolink, Stijn Ank, Julika Rudelius, Joke Robaard, Karel Doing, Stijn Peeters, Keiko Sato, George Korsmit, Hester Oerlemans, Klaar van der Lippe & Bart Stuart, Gerald van der Kaap, QS Serafijn, Karin Arink, Ine Lamers, Gert-Jan Prins, Ton Boelhouwer, Iris Kensmil, Peter Otto, Voebe De Gruyter, Erik Wesselo, Wesley Meuris, and Antonietta Peeters.

From the Introduction:

Starting in 2014, Breda-based artist-run space Club Solo organised a remarkable series of solo exhibitions. As conceived at its inception, the programme was terminated ten years later, in June 2024.

Solo exhibitions
Every year, Club Solo would present four solo exhibitions showing work by Dutch and Belgian mid-career artists in the two rooms of its building situated on Kloosterlaan. The artists acted as curators for their own exhibitions, with Club Solo serving as the host. They all produced artists’ multiples in runs of seven copies. Club Solo’s partners – Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), M HKA (Antwerp), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Bonnefantenmuseum (Maastricht), and LIMA (Amsterdam) – took turns responding to the exhibitions with work from their own collections. Each solo was accompanied by a publication containing one article written by an author who the artist had picked, and one by the curator of one of the partner organisations. This has resulted in a series of 38 publications about Dutch and Belgian artists.

Hotel Solo
Once per year, an artist-run space from abroad would host its own programme at Hotel Solo, with Club Solo again acting as a host. By presenting their programmes, the guest spaces shone a light on their methods and principles. Hotel Solo provided the space and requirements needed for professional discourse on international trends and schools of thought.

New forms of collaboration
In the series of Club Solo Evenings, Dutch and Belgian artist-run spaces would discuss new forms of collaboration. This resulted in the publication of on the future and the artist-run spaces, in which international writers, artists, and curators reflect on the role played by these spaces in the international art world. The book was followed by a podcast series and a symposium about forms of collaboration.

Café Solo
At Café Solo, resident artists from Rijksakademie and De Ateliers held lectures about their work. Both Dutch and Belgian bands also performed at the café. Students and alumni from AKV St. Joost Breda organised student nights under the Slub Colo banner.

Movie Nights
In Club Solo, Art Cinema Gent presented a long series of evenings about experimental film.

Take Care
A key source of inspiration leading up to the launch of Club Solo in 2013 was Anthony Huberman’s essay ‘Take Care’ about how small art spaces relate to their larger institutional counterparts. One passage stood out in particular as a permanent motivating and inspirational factor: ‘Curatorial responsibility involves the invention of ways to appropriately pay tribute to the lives of artworks and artists—not the invention of curatorial methods for their own sake. By always putting the artist first, a good exhibition behaves like a guest who takes care to do whatever is true to the spirit of the work.

This publication is made up of three parts. The first part comprises an overview of ten years Club Solo, along with two essays by artist and writer Frits Dijcks. Following his essays is a programme timeline, and a visual collage of events that have been held at Club Solo. This part comes with two randomly picked publications from artists whose work has been shown at Club Solo.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed.'

Club Solo