February 20th the fifth A-Z night will take place. No longer is nature shaping humanity, but WE are shaping the world. Our acts influence the earth in noticeable and unnoticable ways. This is the starting point of the term ‘The Anthropocene”. How can the artistic practice relate constructively to this critical concept? What new methods and knowledge can offer an perspective to a world full of uncertainties?

GUESTS:

Kristof Vrancken

This A-Z night’s theme is inspired by the doctoral research The Sustainist Gaze of photographer Kristof Vrancken. Working from research group Inter-Actions at LUCA School of Arts he researches the relationship between humanity and the environment and that what remains from human activity. In his artistic practice Vrancken doesn’t only use nature as a passive subject but also as an active ingredient of his work. By deliberately making connections between physical locations and images he forces you to reconsider the relationship between time and nature. Vrancken will contribute to the discussion and offer you a look into his own artistic research.

Sue Spaid

Sue Spaid is an American philosopher, curator and writer based in Belgium. As an independent curator she developed over 100 exhibitions in both Europe and the US. She works with the notion of Ecoventions (a joining together of ‘ecology’ and ‘inventions’) that is nowadays acclimatized in the art world. She curates among other things exhibitions in which she presents work of ecologists, designers and scientists who think about tackling and solving ecological problems. Coming from this background, Sue will present conceptual frameworks for the artistic practice and challenges for the art world during this A-Z night.

Kris Verdonck

Kris Verdonck is educated in visual arts, architecture and theatre. He plays with the borderland between visual arts and theater, between installation and performance, between dance and architecture. In this way he researches his fascination for the relationship between the human and the machine. Recently he created IN VOID (2016), a circuital installation about the absence of the human race. The theater play Conversations (at the end of the world) (2016) researches how we will act and what we will say when the end is near. During this evening he will take us on a journey passed his own brain-exercises and he will challenge us to relate ourselves to them.

Performance: Innerwoud

Innerwoud is the Belgian onemanband of contrabass-player Pieter-Jan Van Assche. The world he creates with solely his contrabass exceeds the boundaries between multiple genres. His debut album Mirre (2015) is in reviews being described as music in which moments full of neoclassical minimalism and ethereal chamber music transfer into a world full of grubby drones and ambient. Innerwoud will look after a concluding performance for this night as a reaction to the earlier outlined perspective and ideas.