Overview
In and Out of Brussels examines four Brussels-based artistic projects that converge in critically investigating the figuration of Africa in the image economy of the West: Herman Asselberghs's Speech Act (2011), Sven Augustijnen's Spectres (2011), Renzo Martens's Episode III-Enjoy Poverty (2008), and Els Opsomer's Building Stories: That Distant Piece of Mine (2012). While each is a singular film, together they reveal Africa's postcolonial imaginary to be a zone of crisis, situated between humanitarian emergency, financial pillage, and the politics of memory on the one hand, and the fictional-but nonetheless consequential-construction of European identity on the other. Just as dominant neocolonial narratives (which all too often cover over movements for independence and social justice) are critically played out and contested in these works, so too are documentary conventions creatively reinvented by Asselberghs, Augustijnen, Martens, and Opsomer.The resulting moving images emerge as a complex site of postcolonial haunting, self-reflexive performativity, researched analysis, archival reordering, and postdocumentary cinematic affect This book represents the outcome of an interdisciplinary and international research project, In and Out of Brussels, which gathered theorists, art critics, curators, and artists over a two-year period (2010-2012). The conversations collected and reprinted here look closely at the four films and examine their political, aesthetic, and historical implications. Contributors: Herman Asselberghs, Sven Augustijnen, Filip De Boeck, Manon de Boer, Carles Guerra, T. J. Demos, Thomas Keenan, Sven Lutticken, Renzo Martens, Toma Muteba Luntumbue, Els Opsomer, Dirk Snauwaert, Hilde Van Gelder, Francoise Verges
Full Product Details
Author: Hilde Van Gelder (KU Leuven and Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture.) ,
T. J. Demos
Publisher: Leuven University Press
Imprint: Leuven University Press
Volume: 14
Dimensions:
Width: 17.00cm
, Height: 1.00cm
, Length: 23.10cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9789058679192
ISBN 10: 9058679195
Pages: 140
Publication Date: 15 November 2012
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Language: English
Reviews
In and Out of Brussels is een actuele bijdrage aan een decennialange discussie over de westerse beeldvorming rond Afrika. Het boek drukt een geloof uit in geëngageerde kunst die voor constructieve conflicten kan zorgen. Het voert de dialoogvorm op als essentieel bestanddeel van een kritische ruimte waarbinnen filmmaker, gefilmd subject en kijker zich actief tot elkaar verhouden. CINEMAGIE 282 (LENTE 2013), Bjorn Gabriels Het mooi uitgegeven boekje gaat vergezeld van een dvd en daar draait dit project eigenlijk om. De dvd bevat representatieve fragmenten van vier films van hoger genoemde cineasten (en de complete film van Herman Asselberghs). In die vier films proberen de vier Brusselse cineasten beelden van of omtrent Afrika te draaien en/of erover te reflecteren. Het boekje zelf bestaat uit een inleiding en het verslag van vier discussies over de betrokken films. Marc Holthof, etcetera, jaargang 31, nr 134, september 2013
Author Information
Hilde Van Gelder is professor of modern and contemporary art history at the KU Leuven and co-director of the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture. T. J. Demos is an Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at University College London.
