Movie night: 'The street'

During the Study day we organise a series of lectures and workshops especially for students and young people. We will work with three designers and three youth organizations and get to work in the public space of Ghent: the south, on squares and in shopping centers.

Filmprogramme

VRT and courtesy argos centre for audiovisual arts Jef Cornelis, De straat, 1972


Ans Mertens Ans Mertens, As I Walk At Leisure, 2018


Joost Conijn Joost Conijn, Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Soelayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl, 2004

Jef Cornelis, The street, 1972 – 41 min.

The film “The street” begins with shots of a demonstration in the street which are immediately followed by shots of a highway, filmed from the air. The accompanying text is telling: “Little more remains of the street than a thoroughfare – a movement machine, as Le Corbusier described it. The residential space of the city, the street, has degenerated into a pure traffic space.” The car has destroyed community life; the images reinforce the story of loss. Shots of Belgian cities, full of cars and trucks, are interspersed with sequences of places in Italy where children and adults spend the day on the streets. The film is a strident plea for the preservation of public space. Jef Cornelis made the film based on a screenplay by Geert Bekaert for the Flemish public broadcaser BRT. His favorite subjects were Belgian architectural heritage, urban planning and contemporary art.

Ans Mertens, As I Walk At Leisure, 2018 – 11 min.

“As I Walk At Leisure” is a film-composition of collected observations at Place de la Bourse in Brussels. Accompanied by a wind-up Bolex 16mm camera that can record only 20 seconds at a time, Ans Mertens films the movements and pauses of the people around her on a summer day. Her gaze records people there at an in-between moment, while taking a rest, talking on the phone, strolling or watching, or filming with the cell phone like the filmmaker herself. Mertens’ gaze is as fleeting as that of the passersby, wandering and searching, capturing seemingly aimless everyday moments on celluloid. The black-and-white film is an ode to filmhistory and its city symphonies. The music to accompany the film was composed by Peter Steckroth.

Joost Conijn, Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Sulayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl, 2004 – 40 min.

For the film Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Sulayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl, Dutch artist Joost Conijn recorded his neighborhood children for a year as they live together on a squatted harbor site on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The children grow up in total freedom. Every day is a new adventure, they can cross, romp and play unhindered on the vast wasteland. Conijn’s film is an ode to playing and a plea for individual freedom within society. At the same time, it also raises questions about the sustainability of their situation.

Dress warm or bring a blanket, we provide chairs!