Was he a wicked man, a giant Canaanite or a true martyr?   There are many theories, but we can at least state with certainty that he evolved into the patron Saint of travelers in the West;  Saint Christopher.

One of the people of Performing Pictures, Robert Brečević, has brought Saint Christopher in a interactive video-shrine from Stockholm to Brussels.  And a safe journey it was.  This little devotional object is the first of a series of Saints (Exemplary Individualities) that the PP bring back to life.

Through time, all of these characters have been doomed to stillness, in some cases the subjects have been exposed through more than a thousand years of inert fixation!  PP believes it’s time to set them free, one by one and motion by motion.

On Sunday, nadine, Geska Helena Brečević (PP) and a whole community of church- and culture lovers came together in the Eglise Notre-Dame de Bon Secours in the city center of Brussels to perform a ritual for St. Christopher.
Jérôme Porsperger chanted beautifully and performed several actions before opening the artifact.  Christopher appears and carries a small, yet almost unbearably heavy child across a river.
The legend continues.  When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: “You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.” The child replied: “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.”

You too can set Christopher in motion by standing in front of the shrine at the Eglise Notre-Dame de Bon Secours until December 09, during the church’s opening hours (8:30-17:00).

Click for more pictures

9 labs joined forces with the 6 resident organizations in the Rue de la Senne 17, in the bid to infect it with more experimental art.  Pictures from this amazing event can be found here.

Since our complex Belgian federal system makes life extremely complicated for cultural initiatives in Brussels, it was about time that all our harsh frustrations and the ideas that rose from this complexity were formulated in a positive, ambitious and grand way.

And here we have it.  2 Years of hard work.  Hardly an object to be tucked away in the bookshelf, but a publication to be seen as a writing pad.  Yes, a place to scribble away and transform 2 years of ‘talktalk’ into ‘the real thing’!  Join forces and attack!

Their initial ideas on the format have pretty much stayed the same.  They’re working with microfilms, texts & audio fragments.  But of course, as their research is progressing, they’re thinking of “how to present the findings in a Live-format?”.

Content wise, their aims were clear: the exposure of the artist’s failure at intimacies, looking for confronting moments of fear, sacrifice, desire, pain, ….  Constructed or otherwise.  Two months later, research has taken them to new areas with new influences and ideas.  But overall they have been able to keep their goals close at heart.

An element that has changed a lot to their own expectations, is this notion of failure at intimacies.  The URA believe that their work here at nadine has taken them in another direction.  A direction where they are looking beyond their “selves” and making work about other realities and human conditions.

To understand more about this working period, you should go and check out their blog.
This blog can be seen as a giant research collection box.  There is no limit to the kind of connections and disconnections that can be made by visiting this online discovery zone.
Pre-set inquiries (of which the strongest one is ‘fear and desire’) along with the new lines of inquiry can definitely be found here.  New lines in the URA research are for example the research into texts and works by people such as Susan Sontag, David Lynch, Pasolini, Beckett,… They have become like new voices in their work.

You can see they have been ‘plundering’ media: remixing existing materials online and reworking them, shaping them into new forms or contexts.
The URA’s came up with a term: plundergraphics” to describe this process.  This is in line with the plunderphonics sound movement where source material is reworked into new shapes, meanings or messages.

In a way the blog represents this beautifully – it has become a storage point of multi-voiced ideas.  The question remains how this will be reshaped into a format where the audience can be a part of.

Let’s discover it this Friday, 25th – 8pm at Plateau.

Something is cooking in the arts laboratories.  Several lab’s are joining forces and team up with the Z17 residents to offer you a superb event during the BRXLBRAVO weekend.

In Zennestraat 17 Rue de la Senne, a former labo of the Ministery of Economic Affairs, a temporary artistic hub was opened in May this year.  During BRXLBRAVO, a cross-over of contemporary work from all disciplines will be presented, in the bid to infect the building with even more experimental art.

The platform arts-lab.be will use the occasion to display an artistic cartography.

.

List participating organizations:

Bains Connective, Constant, Croxhapox, De Pianofabriek Werkplaats, FLACC, Galerie Fortlaan17, Het Entrepot, Josworld, Komplot, L’L, Lokaal01, Margarita Production, nadine, Q-O2, SECONDroom, SoundImageCulture, WP Zimmer

.

The ARTLAB² – BrxlBravo@Zennestraat 17 program will be announced shorty.

Sound came from two sources: the main soundtrack came from the speakers and included a sort of movement manual.  The other was broadcast through a FM frequency and came from Eleni who had two sound modules linked to radio channels attached to her body.  Working on solar cells they could only function when the light on stage was on.

The audience could chose to which of the two they wanted to listen.  If they chose Sjoerd’s main soundtrack, Eleni had to obey its instructions, if not, she could move about freely.

The makers conveniently spoke about ‘free time’ and ‘rigid time’. But very naturally the three different elements were fighting for their right to exist.  Had every element the chance to show their complexity the way they really should?
They stayed somehow close to ‘rigid time’, offering still a wide range of options in ‘free time’.

This was a thorough research and experiment.  We are curious what time and further research will bring as opportunities, to develop some ideas further and steer their fascinating technical processes (see bulk log) in the right direction.