In Between Utopia and Failure aims to resituate the issues present in the exhibition Omnia Communia Deserta within the local context of Brussels. Throughout a series of events the programme will address the Belgian capital’s socio-political situation, ranging from its relationship to the past and its intensive post-war urban development, to its inherently political and international character.

In both cases of Bucharest and Brussels, the prevailing powers in the 1960s-1970s and their ideologies made a lasting imprint on the urban landscapes, driven by a similar desire for modernity to erase past developments. What do we inherit from the ruins of these utopias? How can we apprehend the chasm between the grandiloquence of their origins and their fall? How are we to behave within these spaces today? What progress is still possible? Over the course of four chapters, the programme will endeavor to rethink and discuss the concept of modernity in a decompartmentalized and global manner, using artistic, philosophical, and socio-political proposals as a framework.

25 november, 7pm

My Beloved Bucharest

Screening of Omnia Communia Deserta (2020), and Gagarin’s Tree (2016) by Mona Vǎtǎmanu & Florin Tudor, followed by a videoconference with Mona Vǎtǎmanu, Florin Tudor, and Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, moderated by Vlad Ionescu (in person) at La Loge.

3 december, 7pm

WTC A Love Story

Screening of WTC A Love Story (2020) by Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

8 december, 7pm

Brussels, the fall of ideology

Screenings of Waarover men niet spreekt 2: Alice in Wonderland (1986) by Jef Cornelis; Charlie De Pauw: promoteur (1983) by Claude Lebrun, followed by a talk with Ludovic Lamant.

9 december, 7pm

Inhabiting the impasse of modernity

Screenings of Altogether (2008) by Herman Asselberghs; Mall of Europe (2018) by Emma van der Put in presence of the artists, followed by a conversation with Gery Leloutre. Online screening of Our City (2014) by Maria Tarantino.