2018-2020 DUAL CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION, SOUND | 4 PARTS, 150 MIN
video still, Being Imposed Upon, 2018-2020
‘Being Imposed Upon’ brings together female Afro-Belgian activists and thinkers to confront decolonisation from a feminine perspective. The conversations focus on underexposed feminist themes within the current decolonisation debate in Belgium, tackling the ongoing violence of embedded patriarchal ideas throughout the Belgian colonisation period and its aftermath.
‘Being Imposed Upon’ is a collaborative audiovisual project developed in partnership with Cc Strombeek and De Brakke Grond and consisting of contributions by Gia Abrassart, Emma-Lee Amponsah, Sarah Demart, Heleen Debeuckelaere, Sabrine Ingabire, Anne Wetsi Mpoma, Modi Ntambwe, Tracy Bibo-Tansia and Sophie Withaeckx.
In april 2020, a publication will be launched in partnership with Onomatopee Projects.
video still, Being Imposed Upon, 2018-2020
A committee of female Afro-Belgian decolonization activists and thinkers; Heleen Debeuckelaere, Tracy-Bibo Tansia, Sabrine Ingabire, Modi Ntambwe, Anne Wetsi Mpoma and Gia Abrassart focused on the question which feminist themes are underexposed in the decolonization debate in Belgium and how these might be implemented in the book. The conversations are held around a small stage that functions as a table. This installation can be seen as a modular stage that will transform into a book in the years to come.
video still, Being Imposed Upon, 2018-2020
Heleen: ‘…it is about externalizing the historic cost, and the cost of remembrance to people who are actually not supposed to do that… to the victims of that oppression. So all of us around this table- all of us have done a lot of work to get things back on the agenda… We have written texts, brought about discussions about things happening around us, such as racism and the colonization of the public space. But the interesting thing is actually that we shouldn’t be doing this work. This work should be done by other people and the fact that we have to do it is a form of externalizing the internal cost and a form of colonization.’
Wetsi: ‘I like this point, really…’
Modi: ‘…you made my day!’
Tracy: ‘I did not quite understand…’
Sabrine: ‘The fact that we have to… that we, as victims, have to do this work, is also a form of colonialism. Because it is not up to us. And as you said, we could have been doing other things and even should have been doing other things… Instead, we are doing this.’
Heleen: ‘It falls to us to do this work, but it should be the state and the educational system that should be doing it.’
video still, Being Imposed Upon, CC Strombeek, Brussels, 2018-2020
video still, Being Imposed Upon, CC Strombeek, Brussels, 2018-2020
The conversation of the committee is continued by Emma-Lee Amponsah, Sarah Demart and Sophie Withaeckx‘ reflections on decolonisation, activism and academia.
