Katya Ev
(ekaterina vasilyeva)

With Aziz Hazara, Che-Yu Hsu, Dani Gherc?, Diego Lama, Dries Boutsen, Elisa Pinto, Gaëlle Leenhardt, Hadassa Ngamba, Helen Anna Flanagan, Katya Ev, Luca Vanello, Nikolay Karabinovych, Nokukhanya Langa, Olivia Hernaïz, Oussama Tabti and Paulius Šliaupa

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Curated by Daniella Géo, Piet Mertens and Pieternel Vermoortel

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Images: Katya Ev, Augenmusik, installation after live performance: installation of 12 flashing lights, video (plasma screen, HD, sound), vynil lettering, map of Paris, interview of Katya EV by Peternel Vermoortel (plasma screen)

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On the day of the summer solstice, at the beginning of twilight also called l’heure bleu, twenty-four performers departed simultaneously from each of the twenty four “entrances” to Paris. Holding flashing blue police emergency lights in front of them, the participants walked from the Parisian ring towards the geometrical center of the city at Les Halles, where they placed the sirens next to one other on the ground. Once reunited, the sound from the sirens, turned out to play The Art of the Fugue by Jean-Sebastien Bach’s unfinished opus magnum, hitherto unrecognisable. (…) The performance triggered a strong reaction that revealed the sense of panic embedded in society. It disclosed a mutual distrust and aggression between the police and people living in the city. During the performance twenty two of twenty-four performers were stopped by the police, and two of the participants were suspected of terrorism and detained for questioning. (…) By following the canons of the local legal system, in Augenmusik Katya EV tested the borders of state power, through an alternative kind of public assembly as well as the use of state instruments as the objects of empowerment for civil disobedience. Katia Krupennikova, 2018

 

The exhibition is accompanied by the re-enactement of Augenmusik (under the title Performative Walk) in the streets of Aalst. >> more