WIELS and the Municipality of Knokke-Heist invite you to an annual - undisciplined - happening with recent performances and experimental interventions, in the spirit of the rich art and film history of the Grand Casino Knokke.

With work and performances by Nan Goldin, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven & Crayon Moon, Anna Franziska Jäger & Nathan Ooms, Xavier Garcia Bardon/EXPRMNTL, Jack Smith, Marijke De Roover, Benjamin Kahn, Jean Lurçat, and more.

PROGRAMME

16:00 - 22:15 (ongoing)

NAN GOLDIN
Sirens (US, 2019-2020, 16’, single-channel video)
> Vlaamse zaal

Since the 1970s, world renowned artist Nan Goldin’s (b. 1953, US) photographs have focused on people who live outside of established gender constructions. Her recent film Sirens was conceived as an homage to Donyale Luna, often cited as the first Black supermodel, who died from a heroin overdose in 1979. Titled for the creatures of Greek mythology whose songs draw sailors to their deaths on rocky island shores, Sirens appropriates footage from thirty films – including 1969’s Satyricon; works by Kenneth Anger, Lynne Ramsay, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Federico Fellini; Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests of Luna; and footage from a 1988 London rave – to associate the beauty of the female body with the sensuality and ecstasy of a drug high.

JEAN LURÇAT
Tapestries
> Kroonluchterhal

French painter and art personality Jean Lurçat (°1892 - †1966, FR) is considered the innovator of tapestry art with his work for the renowned tapestry producer Manufacture in Aubusson. He redeveloped his painterly technique reminiscent of Orphist, Surrealist and Synthetic Cubist antecedents transposing them to those of tapestry weaving. Eleven tapestries (gobelins), underwritten by Jean Lurçat, have been in the gambling hall of the Casino for years, hidden from public view. The narratives on the tapestries refer to play, the sea, chance and luck. As part of INDISCIPLINE, these extraordinary works will be made visible in the Chanderlier Hall and an art historical research is being developed into their origins and presence in Knokke.

16:00 – 17:15

JACK SMITH
Flaming Creatures (USA, 1963, 46', 16mm screening)
+
XAVIER GARCÍA BARDÓN
EXPRMNTL (talk, English spoken, 25’)
> Podium Bonapartezaal

Once described by Andy Warhol as the only person he would ever copy, Jack Smith (USA, 1932-1989) is a true underground legend. His films, photographs, collages, drawings, slide shows, costumes, sculptures and performances represent an exciting and influential body of work. A pioneer of 'queer', 'camp' and 'trash' aesthetics, Smith managed to create without any budget a lush visual cosmos heavily influenced by Hollywood kitsch and orientalism, entangling the political and the sexual.

Celebrated by Susan Sontag and Nan Goldin, Flaming Creatures is Jack Smith's most notorious film. This polysexual fantasy had its European premiere in Knokke in 1963 during the 3rd EXPRMNTL festival organized in the Casino – despite its official rejection by the festival organizers. Recontextualizing its secret screenings, Xavier García Bardón (b. 1976, BE) will unfold the local and international implications of these events which involved such figures as Jonas Mekas, Barbara Rubin, P. Adams Sitney, Jacques Ledoux, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Belgian Minister of Justice Pierre Vermeylen.

18:00 - 19:00

BENJAMIN KAHN
Sorry, But I Feel Slightly Disidentified… a solo for Cherish Menzo (BE/FR, 2019, 60’, performance)
> Kroonluchterhal

In “Sorry, But I Feel Slightly Disidentified…” Benjamin Kahn (b. 1980, FR) produces a score for the exhilarating performer Cherish Menzo (b. 1988, NL) drawn from personal history as well as commonly accepted stereotypes from pop-culture, internet and the media. Without any moral judgment, the artist retraces models linked to gender and representation, to the concepts of exoticism and eroticism. Through a kaleidoscopic and beguiling experience, across constant and sudden transformations, they lead to a strictly political matter: that of boundaries – real, social and emotional.

19:30 - 20:10

NATHAN OOMS & ANNA FRANZISKA JÄGER
My Day at a Glance (BE, 2022, 30’, performance/dans)
> Magrittezaal

Departing from earlier works, Anna Franziska Jäger (b. 1996, BE) and Nathan Ooms (b. 1996, BE) present a scene in which an endless stream of thoughts and feelings inflates the room. In an obsessive desire for calculated transformation, their subjectivities erode. They find themselves stuck with a language that doesn’t leave much room for doubt, repeatedly confusing metaphor and fact. Drifting between the schizophrenic, psychedelic and surreal, they glance upwards, at their galactic surroundings, to understand why they don’t understand.

20:30 - 21:05

ANNE-MIE VAN KERCKHOVEN & CRAYON MOON
A - X + B = 12 (BE, 2020, 33’, screening with live music)
> Bonapartezaal

The impact of digitization, science, ancient mysticism and feminism have been shaping Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s (b. 1951, BE) oeuvre for over forty years. Her recent film A – X + B = 12 is made from computer-processed drawings going back to 1977, proposing a compressed version of past, present and future. For this occasion, a bold and eclectic soundtrack will accompany the screening, newly composed by Aldo Struyf (Millionaire, CWTAB, Mark Lanegan Band, Club Moral, ...), Big Dave Reniers (Electric Kings, 44Rave,...) and Sjang Coenen (44Rave, Admiral Freebee, Milow, …), together with Jasper Jan Peeters on special effects.

21:30 - 22:15

MARIJKE DE ROOVER
Live, Laugh, Limerence (BE, 2019, 35’, performance)
> Magrittezaal

Inspired by romantic friendships of the 18th and 19th century as well as her own heartache brought on by an unrequited love, Marijke De Roover (b. 1990, BE) takes us on a musical journey centered on the concept of limerence—infatuation or obsession with another person. In the style of 1950s musicals, alternating between addressing the audience, intimate reflections on her life, excerpts from Hollywood films and covers of song standards, De Roover moves between melancholy, humour and a deeper reflection on the difficulty of relationships.

22:15 - 01:00

DJ HE4RTBROKEN (Liyo Gong & Stephanie Kevers)
> Kroonluchterhal

HE4RTBROKEN is a Belgian collective bringing unapologetically emotional music into the club. Focusing on feelings and reinvention rather than on a certain musical genre, it offers a safe haven to the lone souls longing for a dancefloor to cry on. Promoting nights since 2015 in Brussels, the collective also hosts a monthly show on NTS Radio.