During Antwerp Art Weekend, Coppejans Gallery and Gert Junes Gallery are opening a double exhibition. For this project, they have selected 10 iconic works that have changed art history. Unfortunately, these works are currently unavailable because they are housed in the world's most important museums. So Stijn Coppejans and Gert Junes opted for “the next best thing”: an exhibition that could not have existed without these ten works.

With 'Currently Unavailable', you take a dive into both art history and the power of human imagination. With a nod to Belgian absurdism, two gallery owners present an imaginative programme that makes connections, evokes associations and, above all, offers us a welcome dose of self-relativisation.

Perhaps this exhibition is also about a simple but persistent question: when does something actually exist? When we see it? When we remember it? Or when we try to imagine it? The ten works that form the basis of this exhibition are not there — and yet they are everywhere. As is often the case in art history, absence sometimes proves surprisingly present.

Both galleries also organise numerous artistic activities on a stage "where no performances take place". The full programme of Non Stage, can be found on the websites: www.coppejansgallery.be and www.gertjunes.gallery.

This is not an exhibition of ten masterpieces — but without them, it could not have been realised.

During last year’s Antwerp Art Weekend, Nicolas Baeyens presented a remarkable participatory action: at the request of the public, he cut a large outdoorsculpture into many small pieces and distributed them among the visitors. Since then, Baeyens has obtained a PhD degree with research focused on this artistic practice.

On Thursday 14.05, Baeyens will join us on stage to speak about his doctoral research and reflect on the impact of last year’s action. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and to view a selection of his works. Also, the publication 'Het medium is het geheugen, de drager het souvenir', will be available.

Location: Falconplein, outdoors
16:30

The work of Adriaan Rees has a unique ability to bring people together. As an artist, he constantly moves between his studios in Amsterdam and China. For Antwerp Art Weekend, Rees travels directly from China to Antwerp, continuing his artistic practice on the spot.

In dialogue — and even collaboration — with the audience, a new ceramic sculpture will emerge live on stage. The process becomes a central element: a balance between intervention and chance, and an almost literal embodiment of Joseph Beuys’ concept of the social sculpture.

Location: Falconplein, outdoors
13:00-17:00

On Saturday HOPPER&FUCHS will drop anchor with a pop-up store on one of our stages (Gert Junes Gallery, Napoleonkaai 39), featuring a selection of their remarkable publications. The publisher describes itself as “a haven for our artists, building a home for their books every day.”

In the Schipperskwartier and the Eilandje, that idea of a haven becomes almost literal. For a few days, their books will dock here — each one carrying the traces of an artist’s practice, from painting and photography to dance, architecture, and beyond. In a project called Non Stage, these books quietly become a stage of their own. A small harbour of books, temporarily moored inside the exhibition.

13:00-17:00

Five years ago, Bart Van Dijck cultivated 100 young oak trees to mark the 100th anniversary of Joseph Beuys’ birth. Each of these trees found an adoptive guardian. Since then, we have organized an annual reunion for the adopters, while new oaks continue to be grown in search of a home.

This year, five new trees are ready — in celebration of Beuys’ 105th birthday. Whether you are already an oak keeper or would like to become one, you are warmly invited to join us.

Location: Falconplein, outdoors
14:00

During Antwerp Art Weekend, a ferry service between Coppejans Gallery and Gert Junes Gallery connects the two spaces at scheduled times. Collect your ticket at the specially installed desk in one of the two galleries and have it stamped on the other side of the water. The timetable can be found on the flyer or at the boarding point on the quay.

BONAPARTE FERRY SERVICE
Bonapartedok – Falconplein

ONE-WAY TICKET:
Price: €1
Issued: Antwerp Art Weekend 2026
This ticket becomes valid once stamped on the opposite side of the dock.
Edition: Idris Sevenans

Coppejans Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Antwerp dedicated to artistic research and dialogue. Through exhibitions, collaborations, and projects that connect artists with collectors and institutions, the gallery explores how artworks emerge from process, thought, and experimentation. Its program brings together established and emerging voices, often placing them in conversation with broader art-historical and cultural contexts.

For the Antwerp Art Weekend, Coppejans Gallery cooperates with Gert Junes Gallery (Napoleonkaai 39) by organising a double exhibition and multiple performances and interventions at both locations.