Ritual City by Benjamin Orlow at the Horst Exhibition for 2022

Feb 10, 2022 | 2022

Large statue sits upon a large stone.
12.5.–31.7.2022

We are delighted to announce the Horst Exhibition for 2022: The Act of Breathing will infuse the unique terrain of Asiat, Vilvoorde with 11 in-situ commissioned artworks engaging with the architectural and symbolic character of the former military base. Three other artists come together at Cinematek, Brussels to be counterparted with a programme of films curated by Monique Mbeka Phoba. The exhibition is curated by Sorana Munsya alongside with Horst’s Evelyn Simons. It is co-produced by KANAL – Centre Pompidou Brussels in the framework of Living Traces, a year-long programme between Kinshasa and Brussels.
The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux takes part in the exhibition by supporting the production of the commissioned work Ritual City by Benjamin Orlow, a Finnish-Swedish visual artist based in London, UK. After being executed previously in Finland, Denmark and UK, the Ritual City will be re-contextualized within the Asiat environment. The project consists of various monuments scattered over the terrain questioning the tradition of portraying the male body as heroic and authoritarian in public space. The intention is that the sculptures shall remain in place in Asiat for an indefinite period.

The Act of Breathing

The exhibition The Act of Breathing, name of which departing from the poem L’Acte de Réspirer by Congolese writer and poet Sony Labou Tansi, explores the breath: a repetitive and instinctive force, a necessity. But, as Labou Tansi reminds us, the breath can also be approached as a potential tool for political resistance, as one has to be stubborn to uphold the right to breathe. This stubbornness arises when a breathing circuit is disrupted and suffocated by structural power systems of oppression. When voices are silenced. When earth is depleted. When collectivity is shattered. When music loses its soul. It’s in those moments that the continuous reclaiming of air becomes a space for battle, for gathering, for healing. The participating artists take over the Asiat-site with predominantly site-specific installations that connect to each like one long breath, transmitting energy and linking body to body to form a strong alliance.

The opening of the exhibition coincides for the first time with the three-day immersive Horst Arts & Music Festival from April 29 to May 1. ‘The Act of Breathing’ will — after its glorious opening during the Festival — run from May 12 to July 31.

 

Artists

Asiat, Vilvoorde

Anthony Ngoya, Benjamin Orlow, Kris Lemsalu, Laure Prouvost, Leonard Pongo, Maika Garnica, Michèle Magema, mountaincutters, Pascale Marthine, Tayou Soraya, Lutangu Bonaventure & Ali-Eddine Abdelkhalek

Cinematek, Brussels (free)

Agnès Lalau, Jean Kabuta, Mega Mingiedi

 

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