Event Highlight

'Sit Back Relax & Enjoy the Apocalypse'

From the 2nd until the 18th of September 2022, the physical exhibition "Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy the Apocalypse" will take place in LaVallée (Molenbeek).

This exhibition uses the archetype story of the Apocalypse to ask existentialist questions about humanity and its future.

For this exposition 15 national and international artists have been selected. Besides their artwork, the audience can expect DJ sets, concerts and performances.

Find out more bout the background of this project and its artists.

Background

Many worlds have ended before, and many more will end before long. From the end of our nomadic lifestyle, to the fall of the great city of Rome. From the revolutions that broke up medieval caste systems, to the dissolution of the communist states of Eastern Europe. From a world filled with terra incognita, to a world where even facts no longer are true. Worlds destroyed by strife, conflicting visions, slave-trade, technological advancements, failing bureaucracies, social mobility, human desire, greed, mass-consumerism, fate, and/or a combination of the above.

Each of these worlds comes with its own apocalyptical narrative. The war to end all wars, learning to love that atomic bomb, the millennium bug, the great replacement theory, climate change, and the current wave of mass extinction. There is a sense of irony to experience, and some comfort to be found, when overthinking how humanity has always been busy envisioning its end. It shines another light on one’s own mortality. Maybe, seeing the common end clearly is an evil we need, in order to find a clear direction in our individual lives? Maybe retelling our impending doom in the larger-than-life terms of gods, myths, and aliens can suffice?

Artwork and artists

In this expo fifteen artists consider what the archetypical story of the apocalypse means to them. Bound by a common desire to transcend stale categorisations of the past, almost all of these young creators cross the borders between diverse disciplines and practices. Many of their works focus on the multi-layeredness of contemporary life, whilst trying to bring back some of the underlying layers of human fabric and nature that seem to have been forgotten.

There is little cynicism in this expo, and fewer nihilism still. Yet, we know a world is ending, and many have before. So we sit back and relax, amongst our ancient roots and contemporary cables.

We try to create some time and space for a rebirth - a new dialogue and symbiosis with the non-human, with the almost alien, with ancestral spirits, mythical forces, possible digital intelligence. We want to enjoy the apocalypse with renewed faith in our empathic potential, magical perspectives, and shared creativity.

“When I think about the ancient tale of destruction that is the Apocalypse, and how it pops up again and again in different times and cultures -, it brings me a sense of trust in our power of rebirth. What makes us human is our power to adapt, to reshape our narrative.”

Artist - Seppe De Roo

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“We are invited to become aware of the quasi-spatial universe, yet present within our bodies. To enter a state of awareness of what is occurring at each moment, in order to poetically rethink our way of viewing the world.”

Artist - Lionel Dury

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