de-compartmentalisation October 2017
Free access to the best concerts and events. Join us for â‚Ź8 a month. subbacultcha.be
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at the Mykki Blanco show, shot by Lotte Koster for Subbacultcha
New Music for New People
s u b b a c u l t c h a e v e n t s in October music
film
3.10 Kirin J Callinan + BEA1991 Nest, Ghent
9.10 Ashes and Diamonds Cinematek, Brussels
5.10 Vooruit & De Centrale present: Kasai Allstars + Nkisi Vooruit, Ghent
11.10 Samira Elagoz: Craigslist Allstars Beursschouwburg, Brussels 12 – TRY AGAIN! Selected works 22.10 by Claude Cattelain Argos, Brussels
6.10 Paradis Eden, Charleroi 11.10 Better Person + GENTS De Koer, Ghent
12.10 Good Time UGC, Antwerp 19.10 Film Fest Gent presents: Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream Cinematek, Brussels
13.10 Heartbroken ft. Larry B + Jay Boogie + more Beursschouwburg, Brussels 18.10 Solo & Indré Bozar, Brussels
22.10 L’amant double Cinema Zuid, Antwerp
22.10 The Fresh & Onlys Het Bos, Antwerp
26.10 The Fits KASK Cinema, Ghent
23.10 Downtown Boys + The Molochs KulturA
theatre/dance
(JauneOrange & PopKatari), Liège
25.10 Schneider Kacirek + Ensemble Economique CoStA, Antwerp
6.10 Florentina Holzinger: Apollon Musagète Campo, Ghent 18.10 Beyond the Binary KVS, Brussels
27.10 Flat Worms Madame Moustache, Brussels 8.11
expo
FAKA In De Ruimte, Ghent
— 5.11 Herman Byrd BPS22, Charleroi
28.1 The Sound of the Belgian Underground III Ancienne Belgique, Brussels All events are free for members. Join at subbacultcha.be
— 17.12 For A Time Light Must Be Called Darkness Argos, Brussels
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— 7.1 Riding Modern Art BPS22, Charleroi
intro
de-compartmentalisation There is comfort in compartmentalisation, in the neatness of the boxes that we use to define our surroundings and in the inviolability of unseen lines that are traced for us before birth. But is anything truly immutable? Be it gender or body, shape or form, culture, place, or identity: however defining we take them to be, they are all constructs, figments of societal imagination that we have no divine right to impose on anyone, let alone on ourselves. The dreams we have and the fears that constrict us all relate to the crossing of boundaries, to the shedding of figurative skins or to the transposing of our lives to another place. They all stem from — and reach out to — the beguiling yonder of transfiguration. 5
by
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Drukkerij GEWADRUPO bvba Hoge Mauw 130 B-2370 Arendonk info@gewa.be +32 (0)14.67.86.69 6 6
content
de-compartmentalisation
subbacultcha events 9—21 GENTS 22—27 Kirin J Callinan 28—31 scene report: Tehran 32—37 artist 38—43 style 44—47 book 48—49 recent finds 51—59 we visit you 60—61
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8 MUSIC, EXPO, SCREENINGS, PERFORMING ARTS, TOPICALITY
Kasai Allstars is a 15-member group that explores the concept of mixing traditional Congolese music with electronic beats. Live, the band promises to take you on a sweaty trip down the festive streets of Kinshasa. Also on the roster of this Congolese evening is Vooruit’s latest resident Nkisi, best known for her label NON Worldwide which focuses on cutting-edge electronic artists from Africa. The Belgian-Congolese producer now resident in London will play Afro-centric rhythms and dark Belgian techno to close the night.
music
Kirin J Callinan + Bea1991 3 Oct – Nest (Democrazy), Ghent 19.30 – €15 – free for members In his music videos, Kirin J Callinan, the man of many outfits, perfectly embodies the image projected by the various musical genres covered in his latest offering — a contagious work named Bravado, which flies across ’80s synth pop, dramatic rock and earnest balladry. Songs on this album feature guest appearances from Mac DeMarco, Weyes Blood and Alex Cameron. It’s all connected; everything is Bravado. More Callinan on page 28.
Paradis
Vooruit & De Centrale present: Kasai Allstars + Nkisi
5 Oct – Vooruit, Ghent 20.00 – €15 – free for members
6 Oct – Eden, Charleroi 21.00 – €18 – free for members Paradis is a French electronic music duo currently signed to Universal label Maison Barclay. They started making music in 2011 shortly after getting to know each other during a night out in Paris, and that’s exactly what they sound like. Think: French chanson and contemporary house — or think: Brigitte Bardot, Max Berlin and Max Colombie having a sweaty threesome in the back room of a shabby club.
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VOORUIT GENT 14+15+16 DECEMBER 2017
van de
WWW.FESTIVALGELIJKHEID.BE #FESTIVALGELIJKHEID
met o.a. Jane Goodall · Aeham Ahmad · David Van Reybrouck · Rachida Lamrabet · Laila Ben Allal · Gabriel Rios · Thomas Rau · Jeroen Meus · Bart Moeyaert · Jani Kazaltzis · Joris Luyendijk · Francesca Borri · Mundano · Nozizwe Dube · Tutti Fratelli · Coely · Spinvis · Caroline Pauwels · Raoul Servais · Michiel Vos · ‘Nuff Said · Nadia Fadil · Mohamed El Bachiri · Marek Šindelka · Anne Chapelle · Kat Steppe · Natalia · Rania Mustafa Ali · Matteo Simoni ...
Better Person + GENTS
The most emotional of beat nights is coming up on 13 October. At their homebase Beursschouwburg, the He4rtbroken crew welcomes a line-up that is nonbinary in gender and colour, as well as in music. The Brussels collective invites Larry B, south London queer icon and Mykki Blanco’s bae. You don’t wanna miss Larry re-mixing some oldskool Spice Girls and Alicia Keys tracks, followed by his Brooklyn counterpart Jay Boogie. He’ll be celebrating his glorious body and ours with tracks like ‘My HOE’ (My Health Over Everything) and ‘It Ain’t About You’. Are you crying/dancing already?
11 Oct – De Koer, Ghent 20.00 – free for members and their +1 If Sean Nicholas Savage is in your list of favourite artists, you’ll quickly add Better Person — who has an equally elegant and pained voice — to the list. Adam Byckowski, the man behind the project, creates romantic synth-pop ballads that tell stories about love, intimacy and vexation. Also on the roster are Gents, a duo hailing from the forever-amazing Danish scene. With their moody, crooning pop, the boys are bringing new wave music back into the light. More GENTS on page 22.
Solo & Indré
18 Oct – Bozar, Brussels 20.00 – €12 – free for members Bozar seems to be a good meeting ground for Solo Cissokho and Indré Jurgelevicjute, since there are no direct flights from Jurgelevicjute’s hometown to Cissokho’s Senegalese shack. Cissokho is one of the Youssou’n Dour crew — an African troubadour rather than your regular singer-songwriter. Lithuanian Jurgelevicjute plays the klanklès, a snare instrument that resonates the vibes of the Baltic. The northern and southern feel interweave in a magical melting pot, balanced between Baltic intimacy and African hospitality.
Heartbroken ft. Larry B + Jay Boogie + more 13 Oct – HBeursschouwburg, Brussels 22.00 – € TBA – free for members before midnight
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SENDAI
SEP
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE STUK AUTUMN
SOUND Sendai Gruppo di Pawlowski Micah P Hinson No Patent Pending Jeroen Uyttendaele Wolves In The Throne Room
Advertentie DANCE STUK Florentina Holzinger Rosas Meg Stuart & Tim Etchells Mathias Ringgenberg Eko Supriyanto
Omer Fast Kelly Reichardt Playground 2017 with Julian Weber, Fabrice Samyn & many more
MORE INFO STUK.BE
DEC
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IMAGE
The Fresh & Onlys
22 Oct – Het Bos, Antwerp 20.00 – €10 – free for members Along with Ty Segall, Sic Alps and Kelley Stoltz, The Fresh & Onlys are a building piece of the strange world of the Bay Area’s noisy rock renaissance. The San Francisco duo, consisting of Tim Cohen and Wymond Miles, returns after three years with a new full-length effort, Wolf Lie Down, which promises to mark the ‘triumphant return to form as underground jangle titans’. With almost ten years of experience, The F&Os are a solid garage psych rock band which you need to witness at least once in your life.
Since the beginning, and like a well-built punk band, the Downtown Boys have been challenging society’s fucked-up behaviour such as queer phobia, racism, fascism, capitalism, boredom etc… Famous not only for their performances filled with hardcore kineticism and impediments, the boys also share a filmed viral story (5.6M views!) in which Joey (guitar and vocals) hands in his resignation letter with the help of a marching band. The Molochs, on the other hand, come from the other side of the continent (LA) and bring a different vibe: picture 1960s rock music, Beatles’ haircuts and sunshine.
Schneider Kacirek + Ensemble Economique
Downtown Boys + The Molochs 25 Oct – CoStA, Antwerp 20.30 – €8 – free for members
23 Oct – KulturA (JauneOrange & PopKatari), Liège 20.00 – €7 – free for members
Sven Kacirek has released three studio albums so far and worked with Nihls Frahm, Marc Ribot and Hauschka. The German percussionist teamed up with Stefan Schneider three years ago to make Shadow Documents, and they continue to push their dark, eclectic,
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Get your tickets now! www.filmfestival.be Central music guest: Terence Blanchard
www.blauwepeer.be
(Spike Lee’s film composer)
electronic sound in their new brainchild Radius Walk. Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg accompanies the forceful drum sound and analogue synths with Scandinavian folk vocals and built-fromthe-ground-up improvisation. Ensemble Economique completes a tarblack night with an Eighties drone sound straight from the darkest shadows of California.
We’re thrilled to announce that the third edition of the Sound of the Belgian Underground is already scheduled, so pencil it in your agenda for 28 January! As always, this sonic rendezvous will take place at the AB in Brussels, and will include ten of the most trailblazing acts Belgium has to offer — la crème de la crème van België — Afia, AIR LQD, Crowd Of Chairs, Le77, Sale Gosse, Kassett, Vaal, Christine Denamur, Wolvennest and Golin. It will also be a record fair for Belgian labels to strut their stuff.
Flat Worms
film
Ashes and Diamonds
27 Oct – Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 – €8 – free for members Flat Worms is a three-piece punk band from Los Angeles that consists of half of the garage rock and folk scene that matters today: Will Ivy (Dream Boys), Tim Hellman (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps) and Justin Sullivan (Kevin Morby, The Babies). These guys play noisy punk with hairy guitar riffs and high-powered drums. For fans of any of the other bands they’ve played in.
The Sound of the Belgian Underground III 28 Jan – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels 15.00 – €13 – free for members
9 Oct – Cinematek, Brussels 21.00 – €6 – free for members One of the masterpieces of Polish cinema, Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds tells the story of post-war Poland as Soviet forces take over and struggles flare up from within. A Polish assassin receives orders to kill an important Russian figurehead, which forces him to navigate the Catch-22s of his newly ‘liberated’ country while also introducing him to the fiery-eyed
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19.10 24.10 30.10 01.11 03.11 06.11 10.11 11.11 19.11 21.11 27.11
SLOWDIVE gb + BLANCK MASS gb Sold out THE SHERLOCKS gb INHEAVEN gb (SANDY) ALEX G us TOMMY GENESIS ca KEVIN MORBY us • Autumn Falls PRINCESS NOKIA us LIARS us + HAPPY MEALS gb WEAVES ca ALGIERS us PROTOMARTYR us + HEIMAT fr ALEX CAMERON au • Autumn Falls
CONCERTEN AGENDA
07.10
BOTA’CARTE
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barmaid who will make him question everything he stands for. A meditation on the meaning of freedom and the ways we interpret it to suit our interests.
Samira Elagoz: Craigslist Allstars
Though proclaiming himself as a performance artist, Claude Cattelain is much more than that. He’s also a video maker, drawer, installation conceptor, sculptor, and photographer. All his work from gestures that investigate the force of nature, and the notion of repetition. This month, Argos will be screening in a loop some of his short moving image works in which Cattelain uses his body as the central piece and pushes it to exhaustion in order to mark its limits.
Good Time 11 Oct – Beursschouwburg, Brussels 20.30 – €9– free for members Screening in the framework of The Future is Feminist, a programme focusing on feminism today, Finnish performance artist Samira Elagoz comes armed with her camera. Elagoz takes you on an expedition to online platforms like Tinder, complemented with live encounters, shedding light on the online manipulation of bodies, while cleverly subverting typical gender dynamics on the internet.
TRY AGAIN!
Selected works by Claude Cattelain 12 – 22 Oct – Argos, Brussels 11.00 – 18.00 – €6 – free for members
12 Oct – UGC, Antwerp 20.00 – free for members Set in the gritty streets of New York City, Ben and Josh Safdie’s latest feature is not your typical heist film. Good Time is the story of two brothers, played by Robert Pattinson and Ben Safdie, whose botched robbery results in the latter’s incarceration and the former’s attempts to bail him out, with ambiguous intentions and consequences. A tense, often claustrophobic film with a soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never that not only heightens the anxiety of the movie-watching experience but also underscores the complexity of the characters themselves.
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STORM! 10—12/11/2017 OOSTende
shabaka and the ancestors Christian scott atunde adjuah Jon balke siwan fes feat. David bovĂŠe: boggamasta ambrose akinmusire Quartet
Ragini Trio feat. Bojan Z & Sawani Mudgal SCHnTZL | Octurn feat. Clemens van der Feen & Magic Malik | Verneri Pohjola plays Pekka | Steiger | Veder
www.stormfestival.be
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Film Fest Gent presents: Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream 19 Oct – Studio Skoop, Ghent 22.30 – €13 – free for members Tangerine Dream is a flower power electronic music collective that was founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin. Until 2015, when he passed, Froese was on a hunt to find the ultimate sound. In addition to a legacy of 48 years of music history, Froese also left behind him hours of previously unreleased footage in which we see the band across the world, backstage before a show or on holiday at the seaside. All of these recordings were compiled into Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream as docu-homage to the man.
L’amant double
22 Sep – Cinema Zuid, Antwerp 18.00 – €5 – free for members
François Ozon’s latest effort can be, depending on your proclivities, an aesthetic indulgence or a guilty pleasure. With a premise straight out of a B-movie classic, L’amant double has current French darling Marine Vacht splitting her time between two lovers who — spoiler alert, but not really when you consider the name — turn out to be twins. Based on a Joyce Carol Oates story and bearing all the fixtures of a campy erotic thriller, L’amant double makes for the perfect hungover Sunday viewing.
The Fits
26 Oct – KASK Cinema, Ghent 20.30 – €5 – free for members Toni, an 11-year old tomboy, stumbles upon an all-girl dance crew during one of her trips to the local gym with her older brother. Mesmerised by the dancers, she joins the troupe and attempts to fit in, only to find her efforts curtailed by a strange condition that makes the girls fall victim to violent seizures. As much a coming of age story as a dreamy cinematic exercise, Anna Rose Holmer’s debut film takes the idea of mass psychogenic phenomena to the very relatable experience of finding a place in the adult world as the innocence of childhood leaves you for ever.
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theatre/dance
Beyond the Binary is a night of performances, honouring queer narratives and voices who speak and create out of the ordinary. The audience will be invited to re-imagine existing categorisations into more open thinking and acting. This night will include performances from, among others, the London-based collective Sorry You Feel Uncomfortable and the Brussels Recognition.
Florentina Holzinger: Apollon Musagète
expo
Herman Byrd until 5 Nov – BPS22, Charleroi 11.00-18.00 – €6 – free for members 6 Oct – Campo, Ghent 20.30 – €14 – free for members Tackling the neoliberalist denomination of the body, Apollon Musagete drifts between a fin de siecle freak show and performance art from the 1960s. The choreography offers a humorous destruction to Balanchine’s classical ballet narrative addressing the theme evolving around this supposedly perfect woman, the artist herself.
Beyond the Binary
For A Time Light Must Be Called Darkness until 17 Dec – Argos, Brussels 11.00-18.00 – €6 – free for members
Riding Modern Art until 7 Jan – BPS22, Charleroi 11.00-18.00 – €6 – free for members
18 Oct – KVS, Brussels 20.30 – €17 – free for members
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music
GENTS With emotional sounds that float somewhere between the lightness of a dancefloor and the dystopia of the ’80s, Copenhagen-based GENTS can make your mind spin and your feet move. Supplement this universe with a masculine baritone, sensitive lyrics and a uniquely charismatic, present and emphatic live performance, and you have two mid-20s men who are searching for nothing less than the purpose of living on this planet. Luckily, their playful explorations will transport them — and some smoothly produced panpipes — to Belgium for the first time ever.
Photos by Magnus Bach Pedersen Interview by shot in Copenhagen, Jeppe Bo Rasmussen 22 Denmark
How did GENTS come about? We went to school together but mostly knew each other from going partying in Copenhagen. From that, it was obvious that we had a shared taste in music so we just took all our keyboards and moved to Berlin to party there instead. We wanted to get out and live the David Bowie dream — usually waking up sometime in the afternoon, having fun watching music videos from the ’80s, fooling around with sounds and smoking cigs. We didn’t really know many people there so we kind of built this forged loneliness and longing which was a lovely
creative force. There were no real plans to make a band; we didn’t understand that we actually had some tunes, a sound and some dogmas until we returned to Copenhagen. Then we broke down the rules and expanded our definitions to create something new and diverse without going schizophrenic — a liquid DNA — and suddenly GENTS existed. You have some weird and unexpected elements in your music, such as panpipes. Why? It’s always been fascinating for us to look at things that are regarded as bad taste or simply
forbidden. Taking these elements and reconstructing them within new contexts gives us revelations. That a panpipe should be a no-go is completely artificial to us, and then it’s just strangely and intuitively entertaining and has a sick sound suiting our musical universe. Our credo is to touch people and have fun at the same time. Your music sounds like a futuristic version of the ’80s. What’s your relationship with nostalgia? It doesn’t eliminate our nostalgia and captivation for that period that we weren’t around to
experience bands like Tears for Fears; we’ve lived through it in our own worlds, and laughed loads about the pretentiousness back then. The ’80s is still our heritage though. It’s the point of departure for our aesthetics — from the ’80s and into the future. But we definitely try to write about universal human stuff from a personal outset, helping people realise they aren’t alone in this world. That’s more about longing for the future than living in the past. Technology is more awesome than dust, and longing can drive your mind and music to new places.
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Do you always play Simply Red’s ‘Something Got Me Started’ after a gig? Ha-ha — well-spotted. Simply Red just works every time. They’ve been hated on a lot, but get over it and dive deep into the treasure chest, and there are some sick songs there. In a way, it’s almost too slick and gross but time has turned it into pure gold.
‘It’s almost too slick and gross but time has turned it into pure gold’
Most of your tunes are quite danceable. What does dancing mean to you? Whoa, we love to dance, dancing is cool — we’re down with that. It’s the language of love and perhaps the best way to express yourself. In the perfect state of mind, you forget all self-consciousness. It’s just instant gratification. What does the future hold for GENTS? Well, we’ll be playing some gigs around Europe with our homie Better Person, and then we’re starting some hardcore experiments with new tunes. We guess that’s needed if we want to get booked in Belgium and Holland again sometime and revisit the spoiled Subba crowd. Lucky you — new music just has a great means of existence here.
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GENTS + Better Person 11 Oct – De Koer, Ghent free for members and their +1
music
Kirin J Callinan For many of us it might not seem very clear why Kirin J Callinan — the experimental singer-songwriter Aussie who embraces weirdness and kitschiness — is on the rise. His music is an ode to the kind of tunes you’ve always told yourself you never liked because it wasn’t probably niche enough. However, as the beats kick in and you reach the chorus, the song becomes a real banger and you start wondering if you might not have been lying to yourself. The occasional nut-sack on display in his Instagram posts also awakens your perverted side. The explanation to his popularity is probably in there somewhere, in the dude’s magical skill at making bad taste resonate deep inside you. Photos by Gavriel Maynard shot in Sydney, Australia
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Kirin J Callinan + BEA1991 3 Oct – Nest (Democrazy), Ghent free for members
scene report
Tehran Always been curious about scenes in other cities outside your own little cocoon? We assumed you were! As much as we can, we’ll feed your hunger for insights and secrets in the Scene Report. Our distributor Nilou went to visit family this summer and took on the persona of a tough cookie struggling into the independent music and art scene in Tehran, Iran.
Text and photos by Niloufar Nematollahi shot in Tehran, Iran
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In a country where storytelling is the base of popular culture, I had always been fascinated by the stories I was told by cousins and older friends about the underground scene in Tehran. A scene that was literally formed in basements of apartments and abandoned mansions. Ever since, I’ve always wondered about the reality of the alternative scene in Tehran. This summer I had the chance to find out. Because of the Islamic revolution, a lot of Iran’s pop musicians left for LA in the Eighties. Weirdly enough, they still make music for the people back ‘home’ in Iran. It’s a nostalgic sound people all know and enjoy, but has become completely irrelevant because of a matter of distance and time. The same goes for the traditional music from earlier generations and the pop music the government-controlled media is supporting these days. Western media makes it look as if life and being creative in Iran is a big struggle that makes youth want to run away to any other possible place. Without denying the fact that creating a platform for nightlife, alternative music or just any underground culture in Iran could be more difficult compared to other places because of the political and social conditions, it is still possible. While legal Iranian media is trying to avoid any alternative culture and a lot of Iranian artists have left the country in recent years, there are still people working in Tehran, creating art and music by trying to compromise with the Islamic rules of the country.
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During my stay I met up with Nesa Azadikhah, Pedram Pourghasem and Ali Fallah. All are clasically trained in Iranian music and Tehran-based artists mostly working on sound, installations and visuals. We met up at typical Tehran coffee shops and they invited me to their gigs, mostly taking place in galleries near Vali asr squqre. Later I went to visit them in their home studios, we drank tea and I asked about making electronic music in Tehran over the last few years. Pedram makes music and Ali visuals. In addition, Ali is also the manager of an all-girl rock band, The Finches. ‘I have the feeling that in Iran people don’t have enough patience to listen or even look at you when you’re presenting something that they’re not used to,’ says Ali. ‘In the beginning, when we started organising shows in galleries, I would only make abstract work that I liked myself. Soon we realised that the more abstract the visuals get, the more difficult it becomes to connect with the audience. The truth is that the audience here is not used to the kind of music and visuals we’re making. It was funny to see how scared they would be, standing in front of your computers and synthesizers when they would hear us play. We decided to make something more suitable and compromise in order to make them stay until the end of our set.’ I visited Nesa in her apartment in North Tehran on a warm afternoon in July, where she lives with her twin sister. Besides making and producing music herself, she is creating a platform called Deep House Tehran, where she tries to bring people who make electronic music in
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Iran together. It all started with a shitty Instagram page that expanded to a Soundcloud, reaching more and more followers around the world. Making a podcast called ‘Tehran Nights’ and finally organising events in galleries in Tehran took their internet-based project further still. ‘Over the years the art scene has become very isolated and only tolerates a few specific forms of art, making it even more difficult to find an audience. When you’re not able to let people hear what you’re making, it also gets harder to find other people who’re doing similar things. Finding connections becomes impossible,’ she says. ‘You can easily get
stuck within your own comfort zone and that’s very frustrating.’ The internet has played a big role within changing this kind of isolation in Iran. Reaching a bigger audience has become possible in a virtual way. It’s helping a lot of artists nowadays, also within the process of producing. Finding other people and creating a platform to experiment, has finally become possible.
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Essential online: Deep House Tehran, Tehran Nights / Essential event: Tadaex festival / Essential hang-outs: Vali asr squqre, Mohsen gallery / Essential band: The Finches
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artist
Lisa Spilliaert
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Interview by Laura Bonne Photos by Tiny Geeroms shot in Ghent
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Lisa Spilliaert has a Japanese mother and a Belgian father. After growing up in Japan, she moved to Europe at the age of 17, where she now studies photography at the KASK in Ghent. Soon after arriving in Belgium, Lisa and her younger sister, Clara, shot Hotel Red Shoes (2013), a short movie about a girl, a man and where they’re going. From 29 September, the artist’s solo exhibition, Growth Record, can be seen in the Beursschouwburg. Annual snapshots and making-of short movies reveal the growth of a child whose mother she could have been, having had sex with the father nine months before. Your work is very autobiographical. Indeed. That counts for my early as well as for my recent work. For Growth Record (2014-ongoing), it’s logically so in the sense that I had an intimate relationship with the father of the child I’ve photographed every year. Hotel Red Shoes is autobiographical as well, but in a completely different way. I made it with my sister Clara, and it references a traditional Japanese song about a girl with red shoes who goes away with a man to the far country he’s from. In that way the piece is more about origin — we are half-Japanese, half-Belgian — and about a two-way desire for two different places. However, this kind of autobiographical material was merely important in that specific period of my life. I hadn’t been
living in Belgium for that long, and therefore the theme asked for exploration. Today, I wouldn’t elaborate on this any more. I’m more interested in different issues now. Such as? My interests have shifted from origin to a wider notion of distance and space. I’m more interested in the kind of impact distances can have on emotions — for example, how one can desire something that’s far away. Many of these interests I have nowadays are explored in Growth Record. Can you expand a bit more on that? The piece comprises an annual documentation of the child that was conceived in the same period I was intimate with its
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father. From the moment I heard the baby was going to be born, I knew I wanted to make pictures of him and that the process of me photographing, which I tend to repeat at regular intervals, had to be filmed. Growth Record shows key aspects of what I do in life and especially how I think about a lot of subjects. As such, the piece reflects on genealogy and on how these relationships could exist in different capacities.
make several more films. Next to that, I’d like to study law in the near future. Law is an interest that has been on my mind for a long time as well: the way judicial conceptions form people and the way they relate to each other is something I want to reflect on more. Growth Record also reflects on that topic. Traditional family conceptions are questioned and it puts genealogy in a new light. It’s very important for the life stage I’m in at the moment.
What are your plans for the future? I’m working on my first full-length movie, which will be released next summer. I’d love to
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Growth Record 4 Oct-22 Dec Beursschouwburg, Brussels
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style
model, paintings, clothing: Rebecca Quix photo, masks, styling: Femke Fredrix
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Human Figures
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book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari
text by Gabriela González
It’s a bit weird to review what’s basically one of the biggest bestsellers of the decade. Chances are you’ve already heard some squirrel-eyed columnist (or your dad) rave about it, thus exponentially minimising the cool factor, but I have good reasons to bring it up: 1. I mentioned it in my largely unfunny and burned-out comic, so I feel a duty to report back on it; 2. It has a tenuous link to the theme (I’ll review Blitzed when we do the ‘Drugged Out Politix’ issue); and 3. I want to reaffirm that it’s a book that everyone should read. Yuval Noah Harari’s brief study of humankind is a succinct yet far-reaching, eye-opening attempt at explaining our past, deconstructing our present and envisioning what future could be expected for a species whose dominance on Earth has taken on godly connotations. It’s soberingly surreal to see our species as just that: another species in a complex biosphere of millions. It’s also precisely the taking down of what we know, or think we know, that is so poignant about the book: things we take for granted — agriculture, capitalism, human rights — are constructs that serve punctual purposes and that fluctuate in such imperceptible ways that we can’t but accept them as truths. Besides being immensely readable, Harari’s book brings forth a point that shifts the way we see ourselves and our role in the world — we are still animals, no matter what artifices we use to disassociate ourselves from that fact. The most powerful animals on Earth, yes, but with power comes great responsibility — a responsibility towards the planet, towards other animals and towards our own kin that we have been staggeringly ignoble about honouring.
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MUSIC
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TSAR B
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GOLDFRAPP
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APOLLO BROWN 26 OKT & SKYZOO 11
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WARHAUS
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THUNDERCAT
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KING KRULE
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CHARLES BRADLEY
NOV
DEC
& HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES
FILM 10 OKT
SHADOW WORLD
11
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
24 OKT
DOWN TO EARTH
17 NOV
OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL
OKT
TURNHOUTSEBAAN 286 BORGERHOUT (ANTWERP) INFO & TICKETS: WWW.DEROMA.BE + 03 600 16 60 + FNAC
recent finds OST Good Time by Oneohtrix Point Never
Set in the gritty streets of New York City, Ben and Josh Safdie’s latest feature is not your typical heist film. Good Time is the story of two brothers, played by Robert Pattinson and Ben Safdie, whose botched robbery results in the latter’s incarceration and the former’s attempts to bail him out, with ambiguous intentions and consequences. The film’s uniqueness is in no small part due to the jarring environment imparted by Oneohtrix Point Never’s soundtrack, which not only heightens the anxiety of the movie-watching experience but also underscores the complexity of the characters themselves. Often reminiscent of Carpenter’s VHS aesthetic by way of Tangerine Dream kosmische-ness, the score is laden with textures and sound bites that magnify the story’s pinched tension. We highly recommend it for headphone listening during a walk through ominous city landscapes. And don’t miss the avant premiere of Good Time at UGC Antwerp on 12 October — it’s free for members!
Dodonaeus Digital Arts Festival facebook.com/dodonaeus
This month, from 13 to 15 October, Mechelen will be making an unlikely name for itself as the go-to destination for some of the most interesting and cutting-edge offerings in experimental art. The Dodonaeus Digital Arts Festival will be spread over three days and four locations where over a dozen artists will present their work in the form of electronic music, projections, installations and much more, in honour of the 500th anniversary of Mechelen physicist Rembert Dodoens. Honourable mentions: the nature/machine cross-pollinating works of Biomodd, the icy futurism of Resonance Visuals, and performances by perennial favourites Milan W., Orphan Fairytale and Charlemagne Palestine.
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CONCERTs Thu 05.10
VOORUIT & DE CENTRalE pREsENT
KasaI allsTaRs
/ NKIsI
heroes of Congotronics do Balzaal in collaboration with De Centrale
Thu 12.10
GaUssIaN CURVE (vISualS By hElEEN BlaNKEN) VIsIBlE ClOaKs (vISualS By BrENNa Murphy) + afTERpaRTy WITh yOUNG MaRCO / hElENa haUff / BafaNa
Exclusive Belgian show by ambient supergroup + wicked afterparty in collaboration with Film Fest Gent & Springstof
Thu 19.10
fElIx KUBIN plays ‘TaKT hIElE (vISualS By GaBrIEla GONzàlEz)
DEr arBEIT’
First ever Belgian performance of new soundtracks for vintage communist propaganda shorts in collaboration with Film Fest Gent & Stroom.tv
FrI 20.10
ClaUDIO sIMONETTI’s GOBlIN playS ‘DawN OF ThE DEaD’
proglegendes tackelen George a. romero’s zombie classic INFO & TICKETS:
WWW.VOORUIT.BE - T. 09 267 28 28
recent finds ooPERRON ZES RADIO
by Hannes Rooms
bruzz.be/perron-zes
This fall the schedule of BRUZZ, Brussels’ Dutch radio station, includes a weekly broadcast hosted by PERRON ZES. Started as an online-only show, it’ll now be traditionally aired. Expect electronica-without-boundaries and hybrid club music, showcased through new releases and guest mixes from underground heavyweights or local upcoming artists. PERRON ZES, named for the founders’ favourite hangout spot, platform 6 at BrusselsNorth, is a multidisciplinary collective that provides a platform for young qualitative artists to develop in a creative surrounding. Aside from hosting expositions and events like UNDERWATER in Bonnefooi, Recylart and Fuse, PERRON ZES also run a clothing brand and have multiple graphic designers among their ranks. Tune in on 98.8FM, every Wednesday from 10 to 11pm.
Lean Chihiro soundcloud.com/leanchihiro
Parisian model and rapper Lean Chihiro only turns 18 this month but is already firmly on our radar. Still experimenting with sound, flow and productions it might be too soon to define her musical style accurately, but her latest track, summer hunter, is catchy as hell and now supported by no less than two video clips. The slightly older Kush Box also shows Chihiro’s potential. Thematically she draws a lot inspiration from Japanese culture and anime — not especially surprising given that ‘Chihiro’ is a Japanese name that means ‘thousand fathoms’. She mainly sings in English but slips in some Japanese and French verses every now and then. Oh, and did we mention that this self-proclaimed sad girl princess calls Tommy Genesis her BFF?
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30.09
MICHAEL NAU
03.10
BIG NEXT: KIRIN J CALLINAN + BEA 1991
DOK NEST
04.10
BEHIND THE SHADOW DROPS (MONO)
05.10
EXCITE: LE MOTEL + F.U.N.C., TELLAVISION
CHARLATAN
06.10
HONG KONG DONG + BOROKOV BOROKOV
NEST
08.10
LEFTO & RED BULL ELEKTROPEDIA PRESENT: MADE IN BELGIUM
NEST
10.10
HANNAH WILLIAMS & THE AFFIRMATIONS
NEST
12.10
FALLING MAN + CRITES (DUBBELE RELEASE SHOW)
NEST
NEST
15.10
SPIRAL STAIRS + CANSHAKER PI
NEST
18.10
NEWMOON + TEEN CREEPS, MOUNTAINS TO MOVE
NEST
19.10
ALL EYES ON HIP HOP: THECOLORGREY
NEST
19.10
NELE NEEDS A HOLIDAY + MARY OCHER, TULSKI
20.10
THE WEATHER STATION + WILL STRATTON
24.10
WWWATER
26.10
BEN MILLER BAND
VOORUIT
26.10
NATHAN FAKE, THROWING SNOW, HARING
VOORUIT
26.10
TÉMÉ TAN
NEST
27.10
BIG NEXT: JAPANESE BREAKFAST
NEST
30.10
PSYCH OVER 9000: THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH, ANIMAL YOUTH
NEST
31.10
CHAD VANGAALEN + MAUNO
NEST
31.10
MILO MESKENS + EMIL LANDMAN
VOORUIT
01.11
ISOLDE
VOORUIT
02.11
LEFTO & RED BULL ELEKTROPEDIA PRESENT: VOORUIT JORDAN RAKEI, WAYNE SNOW, SAMPA THE GREAT, ALFA MIST, GABRIEL GARZÒN-MONTANO, JAMILA WOODS, SUPAFLY COLLECTIVE, ALLAN RAYMAN
MINARD TREFPUNT NEST
DEMOCRAZY.BE
MUZIEKCLUB GENT
DEMOCRAZY
by Isaline Raes
recent finds Finissage HonkyTonk 6 October ABC Klubhuis, Antwerp free entrance facebook.com/abcklubhuis
Newest member of the Antwerp art family, ABC Klubhuis, is celebrating the end of its debut expo, HonkyTonk. For the exhibition the five Icelandic founders of this fresh art space (Baldvin Einarsson, Guðlaug Mía Eyþórsdóttir, Helgi Þórsson, Jóhanna Kristbjörg Sigurðardóttir and Valgerður Sigurðardóttir) went over their ABCs and tipped their hats to Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Dieter Roth and other wonderful people from the European mainland. On top of this finissage, ABC Klubhuis is throwing a welcome party for their new friend and club member whose identity is currently under wraps. The only thing we know is that he’s a German jazz machine who’s in need for your sweet company to take his first steps into his new home.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) 20 October NEST, Ghent free entrance byobgent.nerdlab.be
After two successful editions held at KERK, BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) moves to NEST to light up the walls of this former library. BYOB is a global ‘open source’ exhibition format initiated by digital artist Rafaël Rozendaal. The principle is easy-peasy: you need a space, artists and projectors. For this edition organisers Nerdlab and Cultuur Gent will host around 100 artists to project their films, visuals, digital art and everything in between. Expect an evening of eclectic and interesting art that will push the boundaries of the medium ‘projection’ and brighten your casual Saturday night.
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Compro Oro © Thomas Geuens
VR
06.10
Compro Oro BRZZVLL
CD-RELEASE
/
CD-RELEASE
Exotische jazz i.s.m. JazzLab Series MA
16.10
Foyer Soiree: HAST
jazz / rock / impro Glintshake
Danilo Perez © John Abbott
DI
Kris Defoort © Geert Vandepoele
24.10
Children ZA 04.11 of the Light Kris Jazz met Danilo Defoort’s Pérez, John Patitucci en Brian Blade Diving Poets Society DO 26.10 Krachtige jazz naar Peter Verhelst 25 jaar DAAU
CD-RELE ASE
ZA
21.10
Feest voor 15 jaar Handelsbeurs Cirq speelt de Russische Revolutie
Kouter 29, 9000 Gent T ICK E T S Tickets Gent Sint Baafsplein 17 09 265 91 65 www.handelsbeurs.be
Kamermuziek met een punk-attitude ZA
11.11
Nordmann CD-RELEASE
Nieuw album tussen rock en jazz
vorm: Pascal Van Hoorebeke
Handelsbeurs Concertzaal
Nordmann
recent finds Mamma Roma Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962
by Sabzian Sabzian is a collection of online reflections on cinema, and maps cinephile events in Belgium and its surroundings. Articles are written in Dutch, English and French. sabzian.be
27 Oct – 18.00 Cinematek, Brussels
I am a force of the Past. My love lies only in tradition. I come from the ruins, the churches the altarpieces, the villages abandoned in the Apennines or foothills of the Alps where my brothers once lived. I wander like a madman down the Tuscolana, down the Appia like a dog without a master. Or I see the twilights, the mornings over Rome, the Ciociaria, the world, as the first acts of Post-History to which I bear witness, by arbitrary birthright, from the outer edge of some buried age. Monstrous is the man born of a dead woman’s womb. And I, a fetus now grown, roam about more modern than any modern in search of brothers no longer alive.
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Excerpt from Pasolini’s ‘Worldly Poems’ (‘Poesie Mondane’), written during the making of Mamma Roma
recent finds The Big Red One: The Reconstruction Samuel Fuller, 2004
by Sabzian
15 Oct – 15.00 Cinematek, Brussels
‘The only war film I really wanted to make,’ Samuel Fuller wrote of The Big Red One. Except the film never became the one he wanted to make: the monumental edits Fuller proposed were rejected by his production company, which released a 113-minute cut in 1980. In 2004, Time critic Richard Schickel supervised a reconstruction of the film. When film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum saw this version, he called it a ‘more thoughtful and nuanced reworking of the 113-minute release’ as opposed to a restoration of Fuller’s intended version. ‘The film’s pendulum-like swings between a documentary sense of reality and an overall mood of fantasy inevitably produce eerie moments when it’s difficult to tell them apart,’ Rosenbaum wrote in 2004. ‘And if a more intelligent and, yes, contemporary American movie has been released this year, I haven’t seen it.’ It is this ‘enhanced version’ that will be screened in Cinematek.
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we visit you
Name: Paulina Zybinska Age: 24 Zodiac sign: Taurus Website: zybinska.com Subbacultcha member since: NL since Jan 2015, BE since Sep 2017
Tell us, what do you do in life? I’m a freelance animator and in my free time I fiddle around with creative coding. What do you like best about your place? High ceilings and big paintings. What kind of music are you listening to at the moment? On mellow days, jazz, new wave and dub. For the kicks, I’ll turn on some indie, tech house or old-school hip hop. Lately I’ve also been digging deeper into world music, it’s sick! What’s the first record you bought? Ad. 4 by a very cheesy Polish band called Ich Troje in 2001. I still remember all those songs by heart. It gives me the shivers. What’s your favourite pastime? Sweating, getting lost, catching up on films. Tell us something weird about you. I was born a monkey but seriously wanted to become human. Any guilty pleasures? Eating peanut butter with a spoon. Guilty as charged. Which future Subbacultcha show are you looking forward to? W.I.T.C.H. ft. Jack Gardner for a micro dose of psychedelics.
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Photo by Miles Fischler
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front cover: Magnus Bach Pedersen editors in chief: Herlinde Raeman & Kasper-Jan Raeman magazine editors: Julien Van de Casteele & Gabriela González copy editor: Megan Roberts design: Chloé D’hauwe website editors: Valerie Steenhaut & Thomas Vanoosthuyse community management & social media editor: Lisa Wallyn (lisa@subbacultcha.be) advertising & partnerships: Kasper-Jan Raeman (kasper-jan@subbacultcha.be) distribution: Herlinde Raeman (herlinde@subbacultcha.be) printer: Drukkerij GEWADRUPO, Arendonk, Belgium contributing writers: Gabriela González, Julien Van de Casteele, Lilith Geeraerts, Anaïs Violet Van Eldere, Lynn Cailliau, Jeppe Bo Rasmussen, Niloufar Nematollahi, Isaline Raes, Valerie Steenhaut, Laura Bonne, Hannes Rooms & Sabzian
thank you: Isaac Barbé, Mattias Baertsoen, Koi Persyn, Niloufar Nematollahi, Hannes Rooms, Vicky Derweduwen, Lindsey De Laet, Mert Sen, Jeroen Albertijn, Mona Vermeiren, Pieter Dauwe, Mats Wosky, Junior Bokele, Paulina De Vleesschouwer, Margaux Fabris, Kellan Smith, Lynn Cailliau, Anna Hortense Vanden Brande, Naoki Karathanassis, Nelson Henry, Lara Decrae, Kosta Soetaers, Isabelle Vanderstockt, Eline De Vos, Axelle Vertommen, Gert Van Dijck, Lisa Alemán Arévalo, Sofia Van Laer, Amani Wijte, Amaury Wilkin and friends, Saskia Smith, Emilia Vangrinsven, Frederik Vliege, Pascal Vandenberghe & Frederic Busscher partners: Botanique, Beursschouwburg, Het Bos, GEWADRUPO, Vooruit, Democrazy, Circa, Bozar, Handelsbeurs, ICC Distribution, Arenberg, Festival van de Gelijkheid, Filmfest Gent, Storm Festival, De Roma, Cineart, Villanella, STUK, KVS, Eden, De Koer, JauneOrange, PopKatari, Heartbroken, Madame Moustache, Cinematek, Argos, KASK Cinema, Cinema Zuid, Campo & BPS22 office: Subbacultcha Belgium, Dendermondsesteenweg 80A, 9000 Ghent, Belgium contact: magazine@subbacultcha.be
contributing photographers: Tiny Geeroms, Femke Fredrix, Miles Fischler, Magnus Bach Pedersen, Gavriel Maynard & Niloufar Nematollahi contributing artists: Gabriela González & Lisa Spilliaert
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New Music for New People Free Access to the best concerts and events. Join us for €8 a month. subbacultcha.be
DESIGN : PAM & JENNY
MUSIC + EXPO
PRESALE
10 €
10 NOV. 2017
CENTER FOR FINE ARTS BRUSSELS
BOZAR
NIGHT
OFFICIËLE SELECTIE CANNES FILMFESTIVAL