During Antwerp Art Weekend we open 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 with the first chapter of a long-term project CLOSE ENCOUNTERS inspired by Allen Hynek’s categorisation of UFO witnesses.
Hynek proposed three steps:
- Visual testimony from a distance of less than 150 metres, on which a degree of detail becomes clear and an angle of movement can be deduced.
- Physical traces of the event: impressions on the landscape, power failures or physiological effects on people.
- The final step involves direct contact with a living entity.
𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 uses this framework as a way of thinking about connecting with artists, partners, audience and neighbourhood. Classic relations of spectatorship are expanded to include direct participation and collaboration.
*** PROGRAMME ***
Thursday, May 16
12:00-22:00 URSULA #3: THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS / Exhibition
19:00-22:00 SHARED OPENING DINNER hosted by Hafsa Elazzaoui & Latifa Saber
Friday, May 17
12:00-18:00 URSULA #3: THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS / Exhibition
18:00-19:00 IMAGES OF PAST AS IMAGES FOR THE FUTURE by Doplgenger / Lecture-performance
Saturday, May 18
12:00-18:00 CAR DECONSTRUCTION: THINGS NEED TO BE TAKEN APART. A LOT OF THINGS. by Dina Rončević / Durational performance
12:00-18:00 URSULA #3: THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS / Exhibition
Sunday, May 19
12:00-18:00 CAR DECONSTRUCTION: THINGS NEED TO BE TAKEN APART. A LOT OF THINGS. by Dina Rončević / Durational performance
12:00-18:00 URSULA #3: THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS / Exhibition
:: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. Chapter 1 ::
In the first chapter we immediately set the tone with an extended weekend of diverse interactions, focusing on collective processes and different forms of collaborative practices.
Ursula collective reaches back once again to a text by Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, also the title of their exhibition at Out of Sight. It tells the story of a seemingly perfect city, Omelas, where the happiness of the people is built on the suffering of a single child. The story raises questions about the ethical foundations of a utopian society and the individual’s responsibility in the face of collective well-being.
Artists in the exhibition: Meltse Van Coillie, Jana Coorevits, Lydia Hannah Debeer, Ans Mertens, Isabelle Tollenaere & Kathy Vanhout.
The exhibition takes place on the first floor of the new Out of Sight venue.
SHARED OPENING DINNER is hosted by Hafsa Elazzaoui and Latifa Saber. As cooks, exploring how food is deeply intertwined within our relationships, our cultures, our identities and our politics, is their bread and butter. When hosting dinners, Hafsa and Latifa underline the importance of what it means to be one with the dinner table and those you’re sharing it with, while paying close attention to each ingredient that’s intentionally brought to the table. “Eating for research purposes” is a quintessential part of their practice.
In collaboration with MORPHO, Out of Sight invites Doplgenger to present IMAGES OF PAST AS IMAGES FOR THE FUTURE, a part of an artistic research project called “Fragments Untitled” that examines the media’s participation in the construction of historical narratives. The lecture-performance discusses the problem of remembering, representing and giving voice to distant histories through images from the media, the politics of archiving, audiovisual experiments and the impact of this language on the viewer.
Over two days Dina Rončević together with a group of girls, calmly deconstructs a car. The durational performance/workshop CAR DECONSTRUCTION: THINGS NEED TO BE TAKEN APART. A LOT OF THINGS. gives a chance to girls to work with tools and learn to use their bodies in relation to heavy forces. Performed in front of an audience but lacking a need for its gaze, car deconstruction proposes agency over our own female bodies while relentlessly following our curiosity.
Out of Sight organises CAR DECONSTRUCTION in collaboration with Werktank.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is realised with the support of Flanders — State of the Art.
We would like to say THANK YOU to Cardoen Company, Matthias Gommere and Bert Cardoen.
