BLACK BOX I 2009 I 12’00”
New work, commissioned by Contour 2009
The event that, without a doubt, marked the beginning of the new century in popular consciousness and is a benchmark for the mass media is 9/11. Asselberghs’ film questions why we should want to embark into the new century with such a destructive and spectacular image and proposes to opt for a more redemptive and emancipatory moment with little spectacle value but more political potential, 2/15 the day the world protested against the US government’s decision to invade Iraq. At the crossroads between poetry and politics, Asselberghs’ film urges us to consider the multiple implications of media images in our society as well as to imagine what the possibilities might be for an alternative media landscape.
HERMAN ASSELBERGHS (BEL/°1962)
Herman Asselberghs (°1962) is a Belgian artist focusing on the questioning of border areas between sound and image, world and media, poetry and politics. His video works have been shown a.o. at Muhka, Antwerpen; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. He is the winner of the Transmediale Award 2007. Herman Asselberghs teaches at the film department of Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel and is a founding member of the Brussels production platform Auguste Orts. He lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.
Black box, 2009
HD Video, colour, sound, 12’00’’
Courtesy the artist