Critical (Re)positions: About the Implicit Consequences of (Undesired) Heritage

The energy invested in the transmission of knowledge, wisdom and intrinsic values seems to disappear before our eyes into our (political) landscape. The legacy you carry with you comes from both the social, geopolitical background and a personal, family history. Els Opsomer wonders what remains of it in the long and short term. How do you deal with this baggage as an artist and researcher? Does it make sense to care, to convey and pass on values when you have the feeling that the world ignores honest knowledge? What are expressions, questions and solutions proposed within our art world? How can tradition become an added value and tool in the positive change of a distant and dense environment? While entropy is never far away, Els Opsomer wants to keep believing in small changes.

For Els Opsomer an open artistic dialogue is vitally important and arises from the amazement and affinity she feels with the course and practice of the invited artists. For her, connecting is something organic and sharing this common concern is a primary need. For this symposium she invited several artists from different generations to share their strategies and methods with the public: 

Invited speakers: Ângela Ferreira, Susana Pilar and Lucile Desamory

Screenings of interview with Thao Nguyen Phan conducted by Els Opsomer; introduction to Thao Nguyen Phan’s work by Zoë Gray