C0N10URCONTOUR BIENNIAL OFMOVING IMAGES
9 SEPTEMBER — 5 NOVEMBER 2023
WE ARE ROOTED BUT WE FLOW
From September 9 to November 5, 2023, the tenth edition of the Contour Biennial of Moving Images took place. The audience could open its eyes and ears and immerse itself in various forms and formats of moving image, exclusive film premieres and live events tailored to the program.
C0N10UR brought together work by artists residing in Belgium and showed their work in the most ideal circumstances. This edition, the first to be curated by artists (Anouk De Clercq, Fairuz Ghammam, Herman Asselberghs, Manon de Boer and Sven Augustijnen of Auguste Orts) united generations and styles and thus provided an excellent picture of the diversity within the contemporary Artists’ Moving Image.
LOCATIONS
C0N10UR took place at four venues in the heart of Mechelen. The short walking route between the downtown locations allowed visitors to spend a full day watching and listening throughout Mechelen. Thanks to the cultural partners argos centre for audiovisual arts in Brussels and Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp, the audience was also able to experience part of C0N10UR outside of Mechelen.
kunstencentrum nona
In kunstencentrum nona, the curators invited a group of artists to be inspired by the work of the well-known, Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman. They specifically presented them News from Home, the 1976 feature film with two equal main characters: the island of Manhattan, New York where the director resides and her mother in Brussels who, through a stream of letters, demands increasingly urgent news. The group was asked to make one film together: each with their own voice, style, and starting point.
With: Eva Giolo, Rebecca Jane Arthur, Katja Mater, Sirah Foighel Brutmann en Eitan Efrat, Maaike Neuville.
yours, (2023, 80’, Dutch, English, French spoken, Dutch and English subtitles)
Museum Hof van Busleyden
In Museum Hof van Busleyden, a massive wall acted as a projection screen for a continuous film program: thirty films and film clips after and next to each other, in different formats and mostly without genres. The logic behind their montage was not that of narrative but of resonance in a shared space. Facing the wall, Subversive Film depicted the many meanings of assemblage, on the side wall, Melissa Gordon offered look-out.
With: Aay Liparoto, Alex Reynolds, Alma Söderberg, Annik Leroy, Brahim Tall, Camille Picquot, Chloé Malcotti, Eric de Kuyper, Eva Claus, Eva Giolo, Frederic Rzewski, Julie Morel, Kevin Jerome Everson, Léonard Pongo, Melissa Gordon, Mieriën Coppens, Mischa Dols, Omar A. Chowdhury, Subversive Film.
De Garage
In De Garage, C0N10UR brought together voices and sounds that asked to be heard. Listening here sounded like an invitation, a question, a call. Not as an order to be obeyed blindly. On the contrary, hearing could prompt questions. Who speaks when and from what position? Who gets to speak? Who takes the floor? Who makes themselves heard? Who makes noise? Not to mention, how does it sound? Listening may differ from looking, but sound makes it possible to adjust our perception.
With: Alex Reynolds, Chloé Malcotti with Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein, Dominique De Groen, Effi & Amir, Frederic Rzewski, Guy-Marc Hinant, Rosine Mbakam, Sandra Muteteri Heremans.
Cinema Lumière Mechelen
At Cinema Lumière Mechelen, C0N10UR presents a series of films (premieres) by Annik Leroy and Julie Morel, Chloé Malcotti, Mohanad Yaqubi, Alex Reynolds, Mieriën Coppens and Elie Maissin, Léonard Pongo, Effi & Amir.
Argos (Brussels)
C0N10UR and argos in Brussels presented Small Acts of Violence. The audience was invited to walk through a low landscape of broken ceramics vases, moldy collages and brick walls. A caring guide welcomed you into a fabric cocoon, to experience the artist Aay Liparoto’s immersive cinematic Virtual Reality work at the heart of this exhibition.
With: Aay Liparoto.
Kunsthal Extra City
With Double Voiced, Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerpen and C0N10UR brought together the audiovisual work of four artists in a shared scenography created by Yuichiro Onuma. The exhibition looked at the everyday habits and objects that define these images, entered the domestic space and landscapes, listened to the human voice and nature, questioned how self-images and identity were performed and constructed, and cherished female role models.
With: Chloë Delanghe, Christina Stuhlberger, Eva Giolo, Rebecca Jane Arthur.
