deBuren

Stef Lernous, the director of the Abattoir Fermé theatre company, has a deep-rooted fascination for the outsider, the underground and everything that deviates from the norm. In an explosive mixture of horror, eroticism, excessive images and a sly nudge at the underside and topside of film history, he and his company set out to find a way to reflect the spirit of the times. Wonder is the driving force behind his visual theatre. Between April and May the collective from Mechelen will, in the context of a RITS residency, set up an artistic research project on art, television and subversion.

The South African artist/activist Kendell Geers does not think much of the art establishment. He blew up a museum wall, urinated in Duchamp's urinal, masturbated over a pornographic photo and hung up the result in the museum. Geers regards religion, sport, pornography and horror films as events that transcend the possibilities of language. By depicting evil he constantly explores the boundaries of the acceptable. Geers was RITS artist-in-residence in 2006-2007.

Stef Lernous and Kendell Geers do not know each other. An encounter between the two will no doubt result in a discussion whose outcome is by no means predictable. Together with them we attempt to discover affinities, differences and shared interests. This will be an interaction? or possibly a verbal clash? between two world views and two different art forms.

The discussion will be moderated by Johan Pas, arts academic and exhibition maker. The evening is organised by IdeA, the platform for interdisciplinary artistic research at the RITS department of the Erasmus College in Brussels, and is part of a broad study programme on art and subversion.

www.abattoirferme.be
www.kendell-geers.net
www.rits.be/idea