VINCENT MEESSEN - ARTIST PRESENTATION

An evening with Vincent Meessen (1971). As a way of introducing his latest work Les Sociétaires/De Vennoten, shown within the Argos Black Box Series as from December 26th, Meessen will speak about his artistic practice. A practice that often takes various forms: from reportages to songs, demonstrations, tales, masks as well as official signage. The artist will discuss his video work, which is first and foremost conceived as a document on a given experience; that is to say, as an attempt to detect the grounds of fiction through experience and occupythem through narration. Incidentally,a great deal of the artist’s oeuvre has been produced in post-colonial contexts, obliging him to use “translations” and to experience the “cosmo-political” in the field. This evening will also be the occasion for Meessen to depict his shooting protocols and situate theinterwoven relations between public intervention and video in his work.

with:
Corinne Diserens
Based in Berlin, Corinne Diserens is a specialist in modern and contemporary art. Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes from 2003 to 2005 and of the Marseille Museums from 1996 to 1996, she has often worked with both the MACBA (Barcelona) and the IVAM in Valencia. As an independent curator, she is responsible for major retrospectives of artists such as Dan Graham, David Goldblatt, Philippe Thomas or Dieter Roth, as well as that of Marcel Broodthaers held in Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts in 2000.

Etienne Minoungou
Actor, storyteller, director, playwright and cultural entrepreneur Etienne Minoungou (born 1968, Burkina Faso) divides his time between Brussels and Ouagadougou. Founder of the Falinga theatre troupe in Ouagadougou and an experienced theatre artistic director, he is behind the launch of the Récréatrales in 2002, the first Pan-African workshops of theatrical writing and creation ever, bringing together hundreds of artists from all over the continent for a period of three months. In 2006 Etienne Minoungou collaborated on Vincent Meessen’s video "Les Sociétaires/De Venoten".