25.02.26, 18:00, Lennart Soberon, Traversées: de onzichtbare grenzen van Fort Europa

With the start of a new academic year, our Weird Wednesday series is also back in full swing. This time, we’re kicking off with a cacophonous horror musical directed by Takashi Miike. When a family man loses his job due to cutbacks, he and his family set up a bed and breakfast. However, life as a small business owner turns out to be no picnic either. Summer guests die in the strangest of circumstances, whilst the romantic advances of a sea captain threaten to tear the family apart.

Known for violent spectacles such as The Audition (1999) and Ichi, the Killer (2001), Miike is Japan’s foremost ambassador for all things strange, grubby and carnal. The Happiness of the Katakuris is perhaps his most eccentric creation yet: a perverse pop song peppered with claymation and karaoke sing-alongs.

Before Parker Posey played a benzodiazepine-addled trophy wife in White Lotus (2025), she cemented her reputation as the 1990s ‘girl next door’ in Party Girl. Posey’s character Mary, the eponymous party girl, is trying to make the transition to a job at the New York Public Library. Dressed in an abundance of leopard print and ecstasy-coloured shades, she throws herself into life as a librarian.

Filled with parties, flirtations and falafel, the film is an ode to the rhythms of the night — as well as the hangovers that follow. Director Daisy Von Scherler Mayer conducted interviews with both DJs and librarians and combined these with her own experiences as a party animal to create a lively, insider’s perspective on the highs and lows of New York in the small hours.

Prior to the screening, we’re organising a book swap in the foyer in collaboration with De Krook library.

This screening will be introduced by librarian Maike Somers.

Pak je knutseldoos bij de hand, vol krijt, lijm en plakband.

KIDScinema schotelt knotsgekke filmpjes voor aan de kleinere filmbezoeker. Ditmaal wordt de cinemazaal een grote knutselruimte waar maffe filmpjes in elkaar worden gezet.

Film-Plateau opens its ‘Sport and Stamina’ semester series with a colourful bouquet of short films. From the boxing ring in Combat de boxe (Charles Dekeukeleire) to the diving board in Taris, Roi de l’eau (Jean Vigo), this programme navigates its way through various competitive sports. It features silent film and sound recordings, and alternates between factual reports (Clemens De Landtsheer) and the politically charged documentary Dood van een Sandwichman(Robbe De Hert), in which cycling takes centre stage. To round off the programme, we’ll be screening a few stunningly beautiful sports science research films on human movement, which were donated to the Boekentoren by UGent-HILO in 2024.

This screening will be introduced by members of Film-Plateau and accompanied by live music.

This masterpiece by Pier Paolo Pasolini is based on a simple premise: ‘What if Christ were to return as a sexy anarchist in tight-fitting jumpers?’ One day, a mysterious stranger, played by Terence Stamp, turns up at the door of a bourgeois Italian family. One by one, the family members become obsessed with his presence and replace their bourgeois morals with revolutionary sentiments. When the stranger suddenly disappears, the emptiness of their existence can no longer be denied.

For this screening, our guest speaker uses Teorema as a canvas to analyse Pasolini’s art-historical inspirations. Drawing on religious motifs and Renaissance imagery, Pasolini weaves a web of visual allusions that lay bare the catechism of capitalism.

This screening will be introduced by art historian Fien Vrolix.

In the year 80 AMM (After Mickey Mouse), a group of mafia cats hatches a plot to wipe out the mouse population on the animal-ruled Planet X. Mouse scientist Professor Fushimishi seems to have found the weapon to counter the threat to his people’s survival and enlists agents Intermouse and Nick Grabowsky to retrieve the plans from the cat city of Pokyo.

This Hungarian gem is a little kitten that won’t let itself be caught without a fight. With nods to 1970s spy films and a funky colour palette, Cat City is an anthropomorphic James Bond adaptation that refuses to be tamed. Produced during the heyday of the Hungarian animation industry, Cat City is regarded as a triumph of great daring on a shoestring budget.

This screening will be accompanied by a selection of cheeses to taste.

What if nobody truly chooses freely who they become or what they do? Farah Focquaert challenges us to rethink punishment and retribution. Our current legal system relies heavily on the idea that people ‘deserve punishment’ purely on the basis of personal responsibility. Focquaert explores an alternative: a form of justice that does not revolve around revenge or moral guilt, but around restoration for all those involved, the protection of society and early prevention. What does that mean in practical terms for prisons, punishments and policy? Can we move towards a more humane system that focuses on change and genuine social safety? Can we, and are we willing to, recognise that repression not only makes our society less safe, but is, moreover, inherently unjust?

Following the lecture, Farah Focquaert will be in conversation with Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana.

• Philosopher Farah Focquaert works as a visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University, and as a lecturer in the Applied Psychology programme at Artevelde University College. She is an expert in, amongst other things, research into free will and moral responsibility, punishment and detention. She is the author of ‘A Better Life Without Free Will.’ (B&L, 2025)

• Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana is a senior lecturer in sociolinguistics and postcolonial studies at the Open University of the Netherlands. He is co-author of The Bastards of Our Colony: Untold Stories of Belgian Mestizos (2010), editor of the essay collection Black Pages: Afro-Belgian reflections on Flemish (post)colonial literature (2021) and author of *White Order: On Race, Class and Whiteness* (2024) and *Lumumba’s Dream: What His Legacy Can Teach Us Today* (2025). He was an editor at *rekto:verso* from 2016 to 2024.

This lecture will take place at MIRY Concert Hall. The hall is wheelchair-accessible via a lift to the first floor. A Flemish sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities can contact the organisers: helena.verheye@hogent.be. On the day, questions can be put to the student assistant at the reception desk.

In the 1930s, Gaston Schoukens was renowned as a writer of popular Brussels comedies. With Un Soir de Joie, he enjoyed one final major success. The film, based on a true story of a Resistance operation in November 1943, recounts how the Belgian Resistance distributed a forged issue of the pro-German newspaper Le Soir, full of mockery and parody of the occupying forces. It is striking that Schoukens largely avoids the hardships of war, opting instead for a light-hearted approach in the tradition of Tijl Uilenspiegel. Yet the film is not purely cheerful: a few bittersweet moments reveal that the war had left its mark even on this comedy.

This screening will be introduced by film history lecturer Gertjan Willems.

During a nail-biting World Cup qualifier, a group of young women gather outside the stadium in Tehran. Inside, 100,000 men cheer along to the intense emotions that the ‘king of football’ evokes in them. As the women are not allowed into the stands, the friends find creative ways to experience the match up close nonetheless.

In Offside, Iranian New Wave filmmaker Jafar Panahi weaves humour, gender roles and social engagement into a vibrant portrait of an Iranian society in flux. The blurred line between fact and fiction remains ever-present in his exploration of filmmaking.

Meet your new favourite film about… porridge! The Porridge Making World Cup may sound just as dull as the porridge this championship is all about, but nothing could be further from the truth. Every year, the competition draws a host of eccentric contestants from all over the world to the picturesque village of Carrbridge in the Scottish Highlands.

Director Constantine Costi brings the village to life in a Wes Anderson-esque style, using symmetrical frames and picturesque compositions. With a mix of humour, heartfelt stories and endearingly eccentric character portraits, the film proves how you can make the most of a simple concept using nothing but porridge, salt and water.

This screening comes with a free bowl of homemade porridge.

The evening starts with an online lecture by Lichen Hamraie, followed by a conversation together with Leni Van Goidsenhoven. Afterwards there will be interventions by Staci Bu Shea and Carly Everaert, ending with an aftertalk.

Accessibility is often understood as a way to correct built environments not designed with disability in mind. In this talk, Dr. Lichen Hamraie, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability, will will instead explore the broader meanings and practices of access in the twentieth and twenty-first century architecture, design, and disability arts. The talk will focus on four themes: assimilation and anti-assimilation, productivity and anti-productivity, normalization and critique, and the new vocabularies of critical access.

Considering how we can be transformed through giving and receiving care, curator, writer and careworker Staci Bu Shea will reflect on vulnerability and its implications for connection and dignity across interpersonal and institutional domains.

Award-winning costume designer and dramaturgical scenographer Carly Everaert’s presentation will trace how creating spaces for other(ed) bodies — and radically rethinking what a learning space can be — opened the way for their long-term collaboration with Mira Thompson: “Interdependence: On Disability Justice and the (Performing) Arts”. Together, they developed a practice in which co-creation is lived interdependence, crip time is a generative force, and artistic freedom can flourish. This led Carly to altarscenography: theorising how care, attention and solidarity create sacred spaces, where aesthetics and ethics meet as the spiritual foundation for solidarity itself.

About the speakers

• Lichen Hamraie is the Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability, and Associate Professor of Social Science at York University. Hamraie’s research on disability and design has helped form the fields of critical access studies and crip technoscience. They are the director of the Critical Design Lab. Hamraie is author of ‘Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability’ (2017) and host of the Contra* podcast on disability and design. They are a 2022 United States Artists Fellow and Member of the U.S. Access Board.

• Staci Bu Shea is a curator, writer, educator and careworker based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Broadly, Bu Shea convenes with others over aesthetic, critical, and poetic practices of social reproduction and care work, as well as its manifestations in interpersonal relationships, daily life, community organizing, and institutional practices. Bu Shea is the author of Dying Livingly (Solution series, Sternberg Press, 2025). Bu Shea was curator at Casco Art Institute of Working for the Commons (Utrecht, 2017–2022) and co-curator of Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York, 2017). Bu Shea holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, 2016).

• – Carly Everaert is an award-winning costume designer and dramaturgical scenographer. As a lecturer and researcher at the Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam, Carly explores costume, bodies, and sustainability from an intersectional perspective. Their practice is becoming increasingly rooted in the principles of Disability Justice, making diverse abilities, knowledge, and ways of moving more visible. Carly collaborates with artists, curators, educators, and scholars who prioritize embodied knowledge. Carly’s methodology combines critical reflection with material experiments—where making is viewed as a form of thinking. Carly is chair of the jury for the Dutch Theater Festival’s Design Award. Their essay ‘Altarscenography, disability justice and staging coincidence, a secular-spiritual practice of solidarity, on solidarity, coincidence, and shared vulnerability as scenographic practice’ will be published in August 2026.

• Leni Van Goidsenhoven is Assistant Professor of Critical Disability Studies at the Department of Literary and Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Her research focuses on disability, illness, neurodiversity, and non-normative bodyminds in the arts and literature. She is the author of Autisme in veelvoud (Garant, 2020) and OnGehoord (EPO, 2021). Her recent work includes the special issue Cripping Choreography and the forthcoming volume Disability Heritage: Participatory and Transformative Engagement (co-edited with Manon Parry, Routledge). Alongside her academic work, she regularly curates projects for theatres and museums.

This programme is a collaboration between Curatorial Studies, KASKlectures and Studium Generale Gent. The event will be in English and will take place in the Zwarte Zaal of KASK & Conservatorium. The Zwarte Zaal is located on the ground floor and is accessible to wheelchair users, there’s also an accessible toilet in the hallway of KASKcafé. In case you use a wheelchair, go via the entrance of KASKcinema instead of the Louis Pasteurlaan entrance. There are works in the street of KASKcinema, but it’s possible to pass by the entrance at Godshuizenlaan 4. A translation into Flemish sign language will be provided. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisation: helena.verheye@hogent.be

Animation is a strange beast, often quite literally. Things that really shouldn’t move do move. The impossible becomes possible, the fantastical becomes real. With this collection of short creature features, we’re writing a colourful love letter to everything that crawls, wriggles and squirm. Expect Marcel the Shell, the hip-swinging sea snail from Babobilicons (1982), a driving kettle and a coffee pot with lobster claws. As well as a Moomin episode featuring a new soundtrack created by synthesiser sensation Vessel.

This programme has been carefully curated by experimental artist Anouk De Clercq, in the wake of her solo exhibition Love That Moves The Sun. The exhibition runs from 7 October to 13 December 2026 at STUK, Naamsestraat 96 in Leuven.

The very best short films from the Filem’On Festival!

KIDScinema presents cinema for the youngest moviegoers! Parents and children from 4 years old are welcome to this screening in which we show a series of short, wacky films.

To mark a research seminar on the visual representation of Georges Rodenbach’s Symbolist novel Bruges-La-Morte (1892), Film-Plateau presents the visually stunning 1978 adaptation by the American multi-artist Ronald Chase. Chase’s film is paired with Apolline (1959), a short film by Lucien Deroissy.

This little-known gem of Belgian auteur cinema is based on a novella by Franz Hellens, which offers an interesting variation on the plot structure of Rodenbach’s novel. Filmed on location in Ghent, it tells the story of a painter who becomes fascinated by a melancholic woman gazing at the tranquil canals of the historic city centre. A remarkable double bill for aspiring art historians.

This screening will be introduced by art history lecturer Steven Jacobs.

Set against the backdrop of Guinea-Bissau’s twenty-year war of independence, Mortu Negafollows thirty-year-old Diminga, whose husband is fighting on the front line against the Portuguese colonists. The war is drawing to a close, but it soon becomes clear that, in many respects, the struggle has only just begun, and that the new burdens rest on the shoulders of the women. Mortu Nega (those who refuse death) bear the responsibility of reshaping the devastated country.

This political parable is the first feature film in independent Guinea-Bissau and also the first fictional film to depict the experiences of the war. Director Flora Gomes, in a subdued tone, weaves history with mythology in small stories that demonstrate how film served as an important weapon in the decolonial struggle.

Lesbian nuns in 1980s New York embark on a quest through historical texts to uncover the history of the dildo. Their journey runs parallel to the melodramatic conventions of film history. These two films each weave together different narratives and timelines in a quest for desire, pleasure and their expression outside the norm. How can a subversive cinematic experiment offer an answer to a Catholic upbringing? How can a ceramic dildo distance itself from phallic expectations? And what if we shape our own sexual pleasure, literally, with handmade silicone dildos?

The words of Puk Bennie complement the cinematic narratives of Su Friedrich and Paula Tomás Marques in this exploration of what pleasure and desire can mean.

Sleazeballs from all over the world can treat themselves this Halloween to a night that pumps hallucinogenic horror hits straight into your veins. Bad Trip snorts, licks and smokes its way to hell and back with a trilogy of drug-induced nightmares. First, we’ll chill out in the free-spirited 1970s with A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin; a giallo by Italian genre master Lucio Fulci. No peace, love and understanding here, but murderous intent, psychoanalysis and the twists and turns of the subconscious. Carol is annoyed by the hedonistic escapades of her free-spirited hippie neighbour Julia. When she dreams of murdering Julia, she realises the next morning that Julia has actually been stabbed.

After this taster, the party can begin with MadS, a strobe-lit, single-take descent into madness. On his way to a rave, Romaine is offered a mysterious substance by his dealer. What initially feels like psychedelic side effects gradually transforms into a more sinister battle with reality. Finally, we’ll wind down with Brain Damage. In this trashy horror-comedy, a young man enters into a symbiotic relationship with an alien parasite. It promises him sensory ecstasy in exchange for the brains of his neighbours. So find your trip sitter and join us for this night of sensory-overloading torments.

The digital society seems like an unstoppable express train. But who laid the tracks, who sets the speed, and where is the journey headed? In this lecture, Paola Verhaert deconstructs the dominant metaphors of our digital society. Metaphors, such as that of the digital express train, which wrongly suggest that technology is a neutral tool, rather than a currency of power.

Drawing on the work of thinkers such as Nancy Fraser and Paulo Freire, Paola makes a case for digital justice. For a digital society in which technology serves people, rather than the other way round, and in which citizens themselves can decide which technologies they wish to embrace, build or reject.

The evening begins with a lecture by Paola Verhaert, followed by an artistic intervention by Maria Magdalena de Cort. Finally, there will be a post-event discussion with panellist Judith Zoë Blijden, moderated by Annelies Bontjes.

• Paola Verhaert is a researcher and writer with ten years’ experience working at the intersection of technology and social justice. In her work, she studies the political and social impact of digital technologies, with a particular focus on the impact on citizens, marginalised groups and the government. As a writer, she explores themes related to technology, politics and culture. Her work has been published in outlets including Hard//hoofd, de Reactor, Knack, Samenleving & Politiek and MO*, and in 2025 her first book, entitled ‘Technology is politics: The struggle for digital justice’, was published. In 2024, Paola was appointed ‘Scherpsteller’ by the Flemish-Dutch house of literature and debate, deBuren, and the Hannah Arendt Institute, with the remit to focus on social developments over a two-year period.

• Judith Zoë Blijden is a Dutch lawyer and philosopher. She works at the intersection of research, policy and art. She is the founder of Is This Art Maybe and the creator of The Digital Period, a philosophical project that explores the relationship between humans and technology. She also works as a senior legal adviser at Hooghiemstra & Partners, a consultancy specialising in law and technology.

• Maria Magdalena de Cort works as an actress, writer and theatre maker. In 2023, she completed her Master’s in Drama at KASK & Conservatorium. She is a founding member of the feminist thinking-and-creating Magdalena Collective. In 2024, together with Jonas Baeke and Mats Van Droogenbroeck, she created INFINITYFOREVER (Kopergietery). She writes short stories and poetry as part of the techno-poetry project Moenen & Mariken (i.c.w. Robbe Embrechts), with which she has performed as a vocalist at events including Crossing Border, Suikerrock and the Bronzen Uil awards ceremony. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Ostend-based writers’ collective De Letteristen. She has a passion for electronic music, feminist literature and unreliable narrators. In 2025, she took part in the writers’ residency at deBuren.

• Annelies Bontjes is the Belgium correspondent for the Dutch newspaper *Trouw* and a freelance presenter. She also writes for *De Standaard* and can be heard weekly on ‘De Ontdekking van België’ on VRT Radio 1. Her interests lie in social and political issues, with a particular focus on the relationship between Belgium and the Netherlands.

This lecture is a collaboration between deBuren and Studium Generale Gent and will take place in the MIRY Concert Hall. The venue is wheelchair accessible via a lift to the first floor. A Flemish sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities can contact the organisers: helena.verheye@hogent.be. On the day, questions can be addressed to the student assistant at the reception desk.

A poignant reflection on space, care and justice, and on what is at stake when place disappears.

Hectare by hectare, the last remaining open spaces are disappearing. Belgium and the Netherlands are leading the way in building over their landscapes, but the trend is the same worldwide. How is it possible that this visible and far-reaching change continues, despite our knowledge of the consequences?

Drawing on a concrete struggle to preserve a historic marshland area in the city of Ghent, Nele Buyst explores what a place actually is, and who determines what happens to it. She shows how ecological, social and cultural interests are intertwined, and how dominant ways of thinking shape our view of space.

Inspired by anti-colonial, feminist and ecological thinkers, this essay explores not only the limits of our thinking, but also the power of resistance and imagination.

Nele will read an excerpt, Zindzi Tillot will recite a poem and Marieke De Munck will provide illustrations. This will be followed by a discussion and a Q&A with the audience. Afterwards, you can buy the book at the bookstall and we’ll round off the evening with drinks and music.

‘Plaats maken’ by Nele Buyst is a publication in the Karakters series, pocket-sized essays on philosophy and cultural criticism. The Karakters series is a collaboration between Studium Generale, Academia Press, deBuren and rekto:verso.

• Nele Buyst publishes poems and essays. Her second collection, ‘CORPS, poreus’ (2024) was nominated for the Grote Poëzieprijs. She is working on a PhD thesis on the potential of aesthetic practices for ecological restoration and is affiliated with the Centre for Ethics at the University of Antwerp. She is an editor at rekto:verso.

• Zindzi Tillot lives in Brussels and studies spoken word. She is a member of the feminist writers’ collective Hyster-X and an editor at the literary platform Kluger Hans. In recent years, she has worked primarily as a poet. These days, she also engages in prose, video art and performance. As well as art and literature, she has a keen interest in social equality, video games, fashion, film, philosophy and internet culture. Her work could be described as melancholic fever dreams with sharp edges. In 2023, she took part in the writing residency in Paris.

• Marieke De Munck is an artist, curator and creative producer specialising in transdisciplinary and participatory art practices. She currently works as a curator at Kunstcentrum VIERNULVIER (Ghent, Belgium). Her expertise lies in curating site-specific and socially engaged practices, urban community labs, ecologically driven practices, artistic guidance and mapping/visual harvesting. Before joining VIERNULVIER, she was artistic coordinator of WILDEMANNEN WOESTEWIJVEN, a biennial multidisciplinary city festival in Ghent. Marieke holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art from LUCA School of Arts and a Master’s degree in Theatre Studies from Ghent University.

The Balzaal is accessible to wheelchair users. The lift at reception will take you to the correct floor. A sign language interpreter will be provided for this talk. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisers: helena.verheye@hogent.be. More information about the venue’s accessibility.

Garrett Bradley once said: “The tendency to forget is humanity’s Achilles’ heel. But trying to remember is the driving force and the seed of constant revolution.”

Some films cannot be summarised easily. They demand attention, time and a different way of looking at things. ‘Time’ is one such film. Without passing explicit judgement, ‘Time’ raises fundamental questions about how we view justice.

The past plays a central role in Bradley’s films, and the concept of time lies at their heart. Her use of the camera reflects an abstraction of reality. In ‘Time’, the wives of men in detention – and the detained men themselves – are constantly drawn back to that one moment in the past for which they have been condemned, whilst at the same time being swept towards the future.

What unfolds in ‘Time’ is not a classic tale of guilt and punishment, but an intimate and multi-layered exploration of what it means to live with the consequences of a single moment. The film moves between the past and the present, revealing how time itself plays a central role in the prison system. During this evening, Garrett Bradley’s film ‘Time’ serves as the starting point for a broader reflection on prisons and perceptions, not only in the United States, but also closer to home in Belgium and Europe. What does it mean to lock someone up in prison? And what are the alternatives?

Veronique Aicha will give an introduction to Garrett Bradley’s documentary ‘Time’, followed by a screening of ‘Time’.

• Veronique Aicha works at the intersection of art, justice and philosophy. In her work, she explores and develops new perspectives on criminal law. She has worked on criminal law projects across Europe, visited prisons and detention centres throughout the continent, and taught philosophy to people in detention for many years. She is also active as a writer, presenter and programme maker, and develops cultural and social programmes centred on justice, imagination and systemic change.

• Garrett Bradley uses narrative, documentary and experimental film forms to address themes such as race, class, family relationships, social justice, the culture of the American South and the film history of the United States. Bradley has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Prix de Rome and the 2017 Sundance Jury Prize for the short film ‘Alone’, which was released by The New York Times OpDocs and was nominated for an Oscar in the short non-fiction film category, having been shortlisted by the Academy.
  
  Bradley’s work has been featured in various venues, including her role as second unit director on Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us’ and the 2019 Whitney Biennial. In December 2019, Bradley’s first solo exhibition opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), curated by Rebecca Matalon. In January 2020, Bradley became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for her debut feature-length documentary, ‘Time’.

This talk and film screening will take place at KASKcinema. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible and a limited number of spaces are provided within the auditorium. The wheelchair-accessible toilet is located on the first floor and is accessible via a lift (90 cm wide, 1.35 m deep). There is another toilet available further down the corridor, past the KASKcafe, for those using a wider wheelchair. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities can contact the organisers: helena.verheye@hogent.be.