MACS presents a retrospective of Ariane Loze
Press conference: 21.06.2024 11am
How can we live in a society whilst preserving our individuality? What value can freedom have in a world organised by norms and algorithms? In the “age of the void” that is our own, what hope can there be of recovering the consistency of language and making our inner voices heard? In short, are we able to resist the “dictatorship of happiness” imposed by the neoliberal economy? At the crossroads of psychology and politics, these questions emanating from our crisis-stricken contemporary world resonate throughout the videos of Belgian artist Ariane Loze. The critical dimension of her film works appears as a riposte in a social context dominated by the precepts of late capitalism and where humanist values are ever scarcer, a phenomenon which we can observe in the supremacy of narcissism over empathy and in the reflex to close ranks in the face of alterity.
After first studying theatre, Ariane Loze continued her training in the field of performance, combining her skills as an actress with artistic research that took up audiovisual tools. While acting and directing remained integral parts of her practice, from 2008 onwards video emerged as her medium of choice as she made her first films: St. Erme, Horror and Pursuit. Even in these early works made with a limited economy of technical means, her singularity as an artist is visible, in particular in her decision to take on every aspect of filmmaking herself: Loze sets up her scenes and cameras, and plays every single role, before editing the films through a deft use of shot/reverse shot in order to create a seamless ensemble with a unity of place in which her different personae can coexist with one another. Though dialogue is absent from these early videos, in which facial expressions, gestures and poses are charged with conveying emotions and relationships, it would come to take on an ever more important role as Loze’s filmography developed, as we can observe in The Banquet, filmed as HISK in 2016, or the 2018 films L’Archipel du moi and Inner Landscape.
‘I look for those things we as human beings have in common and therefore recognise. It can be an experience, a feeling or a certain situation. My system of multiple characters then makes it possible to show a broad spectrum of potential reactions or possibilities.’
— Ariane Loze
Ariane Loze
This exhibition brings together a dozen works produced over the past fifteen years, from Loze’s first silent videos to her latest film produced by the MACS by way of a recording of her 2021 performance Bonheur Entrepreneur and the possible activation by the public of a dialogue-based game, the performance The Banquet. This body of work resonates with the keen sense of satire that characterizes Loze’s writing, whether in the form of haughty small talk, meaningless management speak, troubled introspective voices or incisive political treatises (Machiavelli’s Prince is quoted liberally in L’Archipel du moi). This retrospective exhibition concludes with a new work in which Loze draws inspiration from a further text, this time one linked to the industrial past of Le Grand-Hornu, namely Energy and Equity by Ivan Illich, an early thinker of political ecology. Anticipating the global crisis that we are facing today, Illich’s 1973 book raised the alarm as to the impacts on society of our patterns of consumption and energy production. In her new video installation, Ariane Loze takes up these issues which are today more crucial than ever.
Ariane Loze was born in 1988. She lives and works in Brussels.
Ariane Loze
L’Archipel du moi
23.06 > 03.11.24
Press conference
21.06.24, 11h
MACS
Grand-Hornu
Rue Sainte-Louise, 82
B-7301 Hornu
Images
Ariane Loze, Bonheur entrepreneur, représentation au Théâtre de la Cité internationale (Paris), 10 et 11 juin 2021. © Photo : Mathide Delahaye
Ariane Loze, Dinner for 4, projection vidéo HDV, son, couleurs, 7’27’’, 2008.
© Ariane Loze. Courtesy de l’artiste et de la galerie Michel Rein Paris/Bruxelles
Ariane Loze, Minimal Art, projection vidéo HD, son, couleurs, 8’25’’, 2019.
© Ariane Loze. Courtesy de l’artiste et Galerie Michel Rein Paris/Bruxelles
Ariane Loze, St Erme, projection vidéo DV, sans son, couleurs, 4’32’’, 2008.
© Ariane Loze. Courtesy de l’artiste et de la galerie Michel Rein Paris/BruxellesOn the same dates
Orla Barry
Shaved Rapunzel & La Petite Bergère Punk
23.06 > 03.11.24
More information here
MACS
Located on the former coal mining site of Grand-Hornu (a 19th-century industrial archaeological site classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the MACS - Museum of Contemporary Arts - stands out for its "genius loci" that has inspired numerous major international artists for over 20 years to realize specific projects there: Christian Boltanski, Anish Kapoor, Giuseppe Penone, Tony Oursler, Adel Abdessemed, and Matt Mullican among others. As a committed partner to artists, MACS supports the production of ambitious works, particularly through an artist residency program conducted by its on-site team as well as off-site (LaToya Ruby Frazier, Fiona Tan). It pays special attention to the visual arts scene in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation through its monographic exhibitions.