The public is not present

"retrospective on my public artistic expressions"

This short film is an extension of the screening/performance of one of my short films in July 2021 selected by Inspired by Triennale Brugge 2021. The setting is an 18th-century house at the screening/performance venue, a public park, named after Prof. J. Sebrechts (1885-1948), a renominated surgeon at the Sint-Jans hospital in Brugge. The beautiful house has typical high ceilings, a fireplace in every room, ornamental moldings, and a parquet floor. It is abandoned for some time now, showing signs of decay. The atmosphere is nostalgic, slightly eerie but comfortable. In one of the rooms, at twilight, I project my short film "Darkentries" against the wall...

As an artist, there is a strange void, a busy silence, between the public and the presented work. A somehow sad and melancholic space, however, also glowing with support and creative fireworks inside. It feeds me like fresh rain. The title of the short film is a wordplay on Marina Abramovic's "The artist is present" (2009).

Also, one of my idioms as an artist has been to make a short film out of a performance of a short film. I admit it may be far-fetched. "How meta can one be?", the comment of an attendee of the screening/performance upon revealing my filming-the-film-screening plans. It turned out to be an interesting reflective and creative starting point, resulting in this experience-based, poetic audio-visual voyage.

Thanks to the City of Brugge and Inspired by Triennale Brugge. Love to the attendees of the screening performance. It was my pleasure. Special thanks to Raoul Boucquey, Sebastiaan Boucquey and Martine Van Parys, and the Sebrechts familiy.