CIVA Exhibition Revives Belgian Avant-Garde Journal 7 Arts

The CIVA in Brussels hosts '7 Arts. Avant-garde belge. 1922-1928' from March 6 to August 9, 2020, curated by Stéphane Boudin-Lestienne and Alexandre Mare of Villa Noailles, with architectural historians Yaron Pesztat and Iwan Strauven. The exhibition examines the modernist magazine 7 Arts, published weekly from November to April between 1922 and 1928 in Brussels. The periodical served as a hub for European avant-garde exchange, connecting with Bauhaus, Yugoslav, and Romanian movements. Its founders—architect Victor Bourgeois, poet-theorist Pierre Bourgeois, painter Pierre-Louis Flouquet, painter-designer Karl Maes, and composer Georges Monier—were influenced by Theo van Doesburg's 1920 Brussels lecture on 'Plastique pure.' The group broke with René Magritte after his turn to Surrealism, highlighting a divide in European avant-gardes. The exhibition showcases their multidisciplinary output: furniture and carpets produced for modernist salons, commercial advertisements, and shop signs. Key contributors include architect Huib Hoste (furniture), Jean-Jacques Gailliard (stage designs for Aragon's play), and Marcel-Louis Baugniet (costumes for dancer Akarova). The group's most emblematic realization is the Cité Moderne in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (1925), a garden city of 275 geometric, unornamented housing units. The exhibition also features works by Louis-Herman De Koninck, Jean-Jules Eggericx, and Raphaël Verwilghen.