Brussels festival encourages visitors to free their minds
A new festival at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels aims to cut through the clutter and challenge our perception with a host of film screenings, dance and theatre performances
A tsunami of information
“Because of the abundance of opinions, we lose track of what is real and important and what isn’t,” says Tom Bonte, artistic director at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels, which is organising the event. “We narrow our scope of vision so that we don’t collapse under the tsunami of information. Our reality becomes that part that we frame or choose to see. The rest is chaos.”
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet promises to show us something altogether new, and challenge our limited perception with a host of film screenings, dance and theatre performances, as well as an expo and live music over a three-month period.
The opening weekend will see the screening of a new film by American filmmaker Zachary Oberzan. In The Great Pretender, Oberzan plays himself but is later revealed to be his own impostor. The screening will be followed by a live performance, in which the filmmaker in turn impersonates Elvis Presley.
Blurred lines
In another film, a young photographer documents the growth of a child. The baby isn’t hers, but she is drawn to it because she had sex with the man who became the father nine months later.
“I’m a photographer in real life,” says the Japanese-Belgian artist, Lisa Spilliaert. “But in Growth Records II I am acting out that role. And the film is in a way a failure because in the process of making it I ignored the delicate balance between art and real life. I never stopped to think if it was OK to do it and how it would affect the baby or the father.”
I ignored the delicate balance between art and real life
It is this blurred line between the real and imaginary that connects the different exhibitions, but ultimately there is no clear thematic link between the You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet projects. Some will shock you, others will make you reflect or laugh. Bonte hopes the visitors will embrace the festival for its ambiguity.
“We didn’t start off with a subject in mind,” he says. “We decided to bring together talented artists and in the course of making the programme, the topics began to arise. Over time, the puzzle became clearer, but it is still a puzzle.”
5 February – 30 April at Beursschouwburg, Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussels
Photo: A still from Lisa Spilliaert’s “Growth Records II”
© Lisa Spilliaert
