It’s my immense pleasure to announce that I’ve been asked to be the curator of the 10th-anniversary edition of the nomadic project Bolero, an international art project on the move.

Named after Ravel’s musical composition for its accelerating movement (here in my favourite version by Frank Zappa), the project was initiated in 2010 by the artists Frank JMA Castelyns, Willo Gonnissen, Pierre Mertens and Mulugeta Tafesse as an answer to an ever more global art world. The principles have always been very simple, travelling light in a suitcase with relatively little means. The invited artists make an intervention on the page of a newspaper of their choice, scan it and send it to the organisers who will print it and show it in a public space and/or a gallery. The art caravan serail arrives, settles temporarily and leaves, always in a different formation. Over the years a collection of 65 art works has been assembled, often responding to political issues.

What attracted me to the project is its multicultural, collective, collaborative and inventive quality, being playful and open, both physical and virtual. So far it has already been an immense pleasure to work with the iniators and I look forward to further develop the project.

Since 2010 Bolero has travelled all over de world. Starting in Addid Ababa, Ethiopia, the homeland of Mulegeta Tafesse, it visited amongst others Vietnam, India, China, Turkey, Belgium and Greece where it was shown in the margins of Documenta 14. Now it will visit for the first time France. It will be shown during the CreArt Festival in Rouen in March 2021 in a collaboration with the Centre André-Malraux and ESADHaR .

While I am currently selecting and inviting artists for this new edition, I am working with Frank JMA Castelyns, Willo Gonnissen, Pierre Mertens en Mulugeta Tafesse on publishing the archive. You can find the special project page with more information here.

As the project always takes an image from the last edition as an invite for the new one, I have chosen the jumping cat from the 2017 contribution by the Greek artists BachliTzanakou (Irini Bachlitzanaki & Maria Tzanakou) as a logo.