Deafening Songs

on voicing, artistic freedom and censorship

Deafening Songs focusses on case studies involving artists Katya EvOlivia HernaïzOussama Tabti, and Rachida Lamrabet

Building upon the respective experiences by the artists with voicing, the limitations of artistic freedom and censorship, this conversation expands on the ripples of bringing deviant voices in the public sphere. The presentation of the cases will be followed by a conversation moderated by Jeroen Laureyns
 

Deafening Songs is part of New Songs for Old Cities an exhibition that brings together ideas of residence, public address and art in an urban context.
 

Katya Ev develops time-based, performative practice and explores such fields as institutional critique, issues of power and control, potential for the individual agency within dominant power structures, as far as testing the limits of disobedience in the public space in relation to specific political situations or events. 
 

Dialogue and narration are at the core of Olivia Hernaïz’ practice. Shereinvents political and economic systems and indulges them with humorous, fictional and escapist perspectives for a different future. In her work Culture Morte aux Bananes, Hernaïz invites the spectator to react to the introductory speech of the Flemish Parliament. 
 

Oussama Tabti offers us his vision of the world through his work, that of a young man born in Algiers in 1988, who is critical of hermetic geopolitics, made up of impassable borders and cultures that close in on themselves. Oussama asks himself if the gaze changes with a change of location. 
 

Critic and researcher Jeroen Laureyns looks at the case of writer and lawyer Rachida Lamrabet. When Rachida Lamrabet in her fictional novel ´vrouwenland´ took the defense of the burqa she received a lot of criticism as this was not considered compliant with her function as a lawyer for the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Opposition to Racism.
 

Jeroen Laureyns is a Belgian art critic and lecturer. He has been teaching contemporary art at Sint-Lucas in Ghent since 2000, combining that with an active role as an art critic for different media (De Standaard, De Tijd, Klara, h-art). Convinced that he is part of an old oral tradition he prefers teaching and radio criticism. He is working a revision of the canon of modern art ‘Women & Other Minorities’.

PRACTICAL

Thursday 11 February, 7 PM

This event will be held online via Zoom in English.

Register by sending a mail to info(at)netwerkaalst.be

11.02.2021 19:00—00:00