Lieven Gevaert

1 primary work • 2 total works

Ground Sea

by Hilde Van Gelder

Published 15 September 2021

Imagine a world in which each individual has a fundamental right to be reborn. This idle dream haunts Hilde Van Gelder's associative travelogue that takes Allan Sekula's sequence Deep Six / Passer au bleu (1996/1998) as a touchstone for a dialogue with more recent artworks zooming in on the borderscape near the Channel Tunnel, such as those by Sylvain George and Bruno Serralongue.

Combining ethnography, visual materials, political philosophy, cultural geography, and critical analysis, Ground Sea proceeds through an innovative methodological approach. Inspired by the meandering writings of W.G. Sebald, Javier Marias, and Roland Barthes, Van Gelder develops a style both interdisciplinary and personal.

Resolutely opting for an aquatic perspective, Ground Sea offers a powerful meditation on the indifference of an increasingly divided European Union with regard to considerable numbers of persons on the move, who find themselves stranded close to Calais. The contested Strait of Dover becomes a microcosm where our present global challenges of migration, climate change, human rights, and neoliberal surveillance technology converge.

Constantin Meunier

by Hilde Van Gelder

Published 1 September 2005

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This book is the outcome of a collaborative research project between LGC, the Leuven Museumsite and STUK Arts Centre. On the occasion of the centennial anniversary of Constantin Meunier's death, the contributions by Sura Levine and Marjan Sterckx examine the importance of Meunier for Leuven, where he taught at the Arts Academy from 1887 until 1897 and lived from 1887 until 1894. As a complement, four authors from various disciplinary backgrounds address the actuality of Meunier's social realist thought today. Virginie Devillez investigates the possibilities of a social realist art after the debacle of socialist realism, focussing on the Belgian 20th century artistic context and the work of contemporary Belgian artists and filmmakers such as the frères Dardenne. Hilde Van Gelder specifically zooms in on the possibilities of making a social or critical realist art, comparing closely the work of Meunier and Sekula. Human rights specialist Eva Brems discusses the impact of contemporary globalisation on the current viability of social rights. Labour law expert Marc De Vos screens the jurisdictional actuality of social realist thought today, especially in respect to issues such as pensions and the greying of society.