EtcIV

While the main museum was festooned with paying VIP revelers, being herded around by vetted art-specialists, the foyer was sort of occupied by a more eager crew of performance oriented people... My kind of people... No big fuss, speeches or rigmarole, but just plain performance and video... The beginning was sort of a mystery since the " Holzweg" *was smaller than thought, envisioned, considered... But if fact it became just as majestic as the great wall, only this one meandered in matchbox size throughout the proceedings.

(‘woodwork’, Ursula Gaisbauer & Adrien Tirtiaux, * ‘lumber road or way’ would be closer to holzweg, a road leading nowhere in a forest...makes it more poetic...)

Screenings by Provost and Laric, on the far side a banquet... hmm...

Minja Gu then proceeded to engulf us with scented wafts from various pots in which she had poured hard liquor, in fact she was releasing the spirit in the spirits and in the end the cookery was all drank but not drunk... Interesting.

Video with slightly too weak a sound to actually communicate with the vegetables by Laure Prouvost...

When entering I had been attracted immediately to a sumptuous banquet set for us... Felt like a continuation of the Buktabanket, but was admonished by a friendly lady to refrain from my base tendencies to snatch a bite and leave the table be until it was time... Well now the time came and became apparent... The lovely lady was in fact an amalgam of three or more personages (as well as the artist herself, Ariane Loze) that were converse politely during this banquet of reflective identities... She played the roles, dressed the consumes, propped the props, decoration, arranged the lighting, sound and rolled the camera, taking various takes of each setting and being the clap too... (like Duchamp sitting around a table with himself crossed with Goddard, and harking back to “Dinner for One”)

A wondrous mix of activities to watch and be fascinated by, being witness to a creative process which was basically a selfie-movie but much more than that. The video version

projected on the wall was a finished self-contained version shot in controlled circumstances, while this was part of a chaotic interaction between various actions and not so easy to keep on track... But Miss Loze held it together wonderfully and it worked on various levels... Performance in itself, a tad of theatre, construction, installation docu and soap... A momentary wobble created by the appearance of Dara Birnbaum's Wonder Woman on the screen nearby with excessive soundtrack ... But ,Le Banquet, remained a feast for sore eyes...

Hope to see the resulting video at some point, certain that it will be a successful piece of work... Highlight of the evening...

Behind another wall they were painting mineatures in drawing postage stamp size of Belgian Congo collectibles... A strange tableau vivant de nature mort one might say, but perhaps a bit stayed for a performance eve happening, or should have been there from the start instead of presenting it in the middle somewhere... but a mineature reminder of that strange slant in belgian identity, congo... (Tuur & Flip Marinus)

Another duo though was well placed, two sisters Maika & Inca Garnica taped together with Laptop, beamer and soundbox, projecting written names of spaces while footsteps sounded the spaces rendered and projected to about the general area they might be... We followed suit and even thogh abstract, could join them in their foray about the house... Not bad at all.

Expecting Ria Pacquée to do something perhaps with some recent material (she had just sent some cats from Bangkok - photo-electronically that is...). But she had two video's on offer which I had already seen before, though not on such a screenscale... so always good to encounter on our ramblings...

Ludo Mich on the other hand did expand on earlier work, now donned in bluebeard and assisted by a redbeard ‘ironworks-man’ and former guitar-thrower on electronics - redfaced musicologists, say... though once the yelling started it did remind somewhat of... Well Ludo Mich of course... With bells (glockenspiel) attached...

Had to skedaddle and missed Jankowski, Traianova and Rafman Koord - fluwelen koord... And may just as well hang myself for it, since it was a good evening... There was some promise in the shady silhouettes of Camouflage-krampus-like figures mingling with the crowd - Thumbs up to the young crew that put it all together.

(The young SMAKkers, including Natali Sarisyan, Jeroen Staes, Nadia Bijl, Maud Gyssels, Pepa De Maersschalck)