{"id":5504,"date":"2014-04-10T12:19:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T18:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.saic.edu\/cate\/?p=5504"},"modified":"2025-01-09T22:58:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T04:58:22","slug":"interview-with-sven-augustijnen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/2014\/04\/10\/interview-with-sven-augustijnen\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Sven Augustijnen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filmmaker Sven Augustijnen sat down with CATE Program Assistant George William Price to discuss his multifaceted artistic practice within the context of his film “Spectres”,\u00a0\u00a0screened at CATE on April 4, 2014. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Augustijnen’s work\u00a0concentrates on the tradition of portraiture and the porous boundaries between fiction and reality, using a hybrid of genres and techniques to interrogate how contemporary reality is constructed through various fictions and narratives. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Spectres”<\/em>\u00a0(2011) focuses a critical eye on the official account of the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo\u2019s first elected Prime Minister post European colonial rule.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

George William Price: \u00a0What drew you to this particular project? \u00a0Why do you feel it was important to investigate this set of histories within Spectres?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sven Augustijnen: \u00a0My practice comes mainly from observations. \u00a0I live in Brussels, a town that is very marked by its colonial history and I feel interested in the public space and what\u2019s going on there — the people etcetera.<\/p>\n

Somehow the project came to me, although I knew it was impossible. \u00a0That you shouldn\u2019t do this, you know, there is an attraction also to this project.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/a>
Still from Spectres (2011, Sven Augustijnen). Courtesy of the artist and Auguste Orts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

GWP: \u00a0One of Spectres<\/em> iterations was shown within the context of a solo show you had at de Appel arts centre (Amsterdam) in 2011. \u00a0How would you describe the relationship of the film to the spatial exhibit and the process you developed in bringing these various forms of documentation together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SA: I was in touch with Brassinne and at a certain moment I decided to make a book which was composed mainly of an interview and his photo archive. \u00a0In this photo archive I found two negative films which he made at an earlier time, during his research in the eighties. \u00a0One of them was the place where Lumumba\u2019s life was lost. \u00a0There were only, I think, one or two images published so I decided to print them and make a construction out of it.<\/p>\n

Out of this came other material from the archive, the flag etcetera. To be more precise, the exhibition was constructed around three moments. \u00a0Moments that he did research and went back to search or the place of execution. First in \u201865 when he published his first book. \u00a0Then in the late eighties when he found the place of execution during his research for his PhD and finally when we shot the film in 2009.<\/p>\n

First of all in my film there is almost no archive material except the speech of Baudouin and Lumumba. \u00a0Which you hear, you don\u2019t see them, you just hear the sound of it.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m more interested in how this history lives today in bodies, in narratives and the discourses, of people who are somehow altered by it. \u00a0Through their actions and through their way of living and how they try to work them out. \u00a0I saw the archive as just a promulgation of this. \u00a0The archive is still living today and is a constitution for a certain kind of discourse or legitimation.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/a>
Still from Spectres (2011, Sven Augustijnen). Courtesy of the artist and Auguste Orts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GWP:\u00a0Your practice seems to center around the analysis of cultural and historical places both in space and time. \u00a0Using a previous project of yours how would you articulate your interest in these dense and multifaceted concepts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SA: In some of my other work it\u2019s also about characters who play themselves, bodies who perform out history, a social condition, power relations etc.<\/p>\n

GWP:\u00a0When you say you get people to play themselves is that in terms of ethnofiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SA: I think the work I do is much more of a situational approach. \u00a0I create situations in which those people can perform out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also not so interested in this fine line between fiction and documentary. \u00a0I am more interested how reality is constructed. \u00a0How fictions and narratives are used to construct it. \u00a0The work is more of that line.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/a>
Still from Spectres (2011, Sven Augustijnen). Courtesy of the artist and Auguste Orts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GWP: Finally, what projects are you working on currently? \u00a0Are you working within the same vein as Spectres<\/em> or are you currently exploring other subject matter or contextual frameworks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SA: It\u2019s very often that one project generates another and I have been making some works that are still related to Spectres<\/em>. \u00a0I am working on a project called Fiert\u00e9 Nationale<\/em>, [National Pride]. \u00a0It\u2019s in reference to the Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal, which is a light weapons factory in Belgium that makes various weapons. \u00a0Mostly they were very well know during the Cold War. \u00a0One of their firearms was called Fusil Automatique L\u00e9ger<\/em> or, in English, the Right Arm of the Free World. \u00a0So I\u2019ve taken this as a starting point for research — historical and geopolitical research. \u00a0These weapons have been produced to be licensed and exported all around the world.<\/p>\n

This interview between Sven Augustijnen and CATE Program Assistant George William Price took place at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago on April 4, 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filmmaker Sven Augustijnen sat down with CATE Program Assistant George William Price to discuss his multifaceted artistic practice within the context of his film “Spectres”,\u00a0\u00a0screened at CATE on April 4, 2014. \u00a0 Augustijnen’s work\u00a0concentrates on the tradition of portraiture and the porous boundaries between fiction and reality, using a hybrid of genres and techniques to […]<\/p>\n

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