Favourite spots

Place of artistic research and experimentation

In agreement with the Ministry of Culture and with to broaden its field of action, Casino Luxembourg has taken over, since February 2021, the programming of the Konschthaus Beim Engel gallery, now called Casino Display.

It was also essential to offer a platform that promotes very young creation and supports young creatives of today and tomorrow in the absence of art schools in Luxembourg.

The Casino Display programming revolves around three axes:

Residencies
The Casino Display offers an artist residency for six months, which is the natural evolution of the residency program conducted by Casino Luxembourg since 2010. Above all, the residency at the Casino Display is designed as a time for research and discussion. Without the obligation of a final result (eg. work or exhibition), it will allow better monitoring, support over the longer term and deeper involvement of the artist at different levels (artistic, academic, and professional). During the six months of residency, the artist will be able to experiment in the spaces made available to him and move forward in his work. If the artist wishes, a meeting with the public will also be possible.

Artist in residency, Andrea Mancini, 01.02 – 31.07.2021
Andrea Mancini (born in 1989) is a Luxembourg musician, sound artist, and multidisciplinary visual artist of Italian origin. He studied political science at the Free University of Brussels before obtaining a BA in typography, graphic design, and visual communication from the School of Graphic Research (ERG, Brussels) in 2016. In the meantime, Mancini started to focus on his Cleveland electronic music project. Since then, he has performed on numerous international stages and at prestigious festivals and works closely with renowned agencies and labels in Barcelona, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Amsterdam. His work has received numerous positive criticism from the trade media and was the subject of critical acclaim and reviews in international trade press such as Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Boiler Room, and Inverted Audio.. In his sound work, Andrea Mancini searches for the frictions and tensions between antagonistic textures and impressions (cold/hot, liquid/static, organic/synthetic) from which the artist creates structures that emphasize contemplation. His visuals combine different disciplines, including graphic design, filmed and generated videography, installation, and scenography. During his six-month residency at Casino Display, he will conduct experimental research on the building blocks that allow the two facets of his artistic practice, sound, and image, to merge into a single entity.

Associate curator, Nadina Faljic, 01.03 – 31.12.2021
As an associate curator, Nadina Faljic will be actively involved in the programming of the Casino Display, and more particularly in the prospecting and guidance of young talents. Nadina Faljic (born in 1992) is a Luxembourg-based curator, mediator, and freelance writer. She holds a Masters in Curatorial Studies from the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar (HBKsaar) and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of the Saar. From 2018 to 2020, she was a research assistant at the HBKsaar gallery and participated in the organisation of numerous exhibitions. Lately, Nadina Faljic was part of the selection committee for the Open Call "Platz Machen" organised by the Neuer Saarbrücker Kunstverein. Since 2016, she has also worked as a cultural mediator and guide-lecturer in cultural institutions in Luxembourg (such as the Cercle Cité, CNA, MNHA, and Rotondes). She is passionate about art history and theory, curatorial activism, participation, art and public spaces, curator-mediator, philosophy and media theory. His first group exhibition titled (Obscure) Desire will take place in three different locations of Saarbrücken in spring/summer 2021. “As part of my thesis focusing on the conservation program of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar, I studied the encounter of art and its anchoring in space. Emphasis was placed on public accessibility, modification of the welcome, and mindfulness of visitors through the specific medium of the exhibition, as close as possible to the spectator, the gaze (gauze), the theme of desire, and its critical questioning, particularly in the discussion of the different perceptions of space and constructed spaces. The question of curatorial approaches was addressed based on a thematic exhibition concept that had until then only been fictitious. Dark desire. » Nadina Faljic

Prospecting for young talents
Prospecting work will be carried out throughout the year in four art colleges with which Casino Luxembourg has established partnerships: ÉSAL - École supérieure d'Art de Lorraine, Metz/Épinal; ENSAD - National School of Art and Design, Nancy; HEAR - Haute École des arts du Rhin, Strasbourg/Mulhouse; HBKsaar - Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar, Saarbrücken. Prospection and exchanges of work will be lead with the possibility for selected students to exhibit at the Casino Display.

Cartographies et espaces du livre. Until 13.03.2021
For its first public presentation, the Casino Display invites visitors to see, until March 13, 2021, the results of a research work developed by the École Supérieure d'Art de Lorraine - ÉSAL around the 'book object. The students, the speakers Émilie Pompelle and Elamine Maecha - graphic designers and professors at ÉSAL - and the typographer Christina Poth supervised several moments of meetings and exchanges, in particular with actors S of the local artistic scene wishing to deepen their knowledge and knowledge in the field. The research focused on immersion in the world of graphic design through the experimental and plastic exploration of the paratext as well as on a parallel between the artistic practices of the participants, the position of the reader, and the on the page of an editorial object.

Youth guidance
The Casino Display guides young people, making it easier for them to familiarize themselves with the diversity of creative studies and the variety of opportunities offered in art colleges. In this sense, the Casino Display's programming plans to encourage the intersection of practices and interdisciplinary meetings.

Building
In spring 2019, Casino Luxembourg was entrusted with the management of the Konschthaus Beim Engel gallery by the Ministry of Culture, which has managed the premises since the early 1980s. The building redevelopment mission was awarded in August 2019 to the NJOY architectural firm; the objective of this approach, wanted by the Ministry of Culture and the Administration of Public Buildings, being greater functionality of the premises for years to come. The renovation work, carried out in collaboration with the National Sites and Monuments Service, lasted from September 2020 to February 2021. NJOY advocated an approach based on dialogue and respect for the old while infusing a contemporary note to the architecture of the place. "Our approach has been to assuage the too rustic expression that the place had accumulated over the past interventions to rediscover the intrinsic qualities of the historic space. Once the layers are removed, the application of monochrome gives more fluidity and readability to space. Its expression softened, its atmosphere brightened, also allow better visibility from the outside through the windows. In some places, contemporary implants have been added, such as a small reading area, a water cell for an artist in residence, or chair rails in the shape of a triptych in the vaulted cellars. »Nathalie Jacoby, NJOY