Drawing from seemingly endlessly proliferating word sequences—which arise from a single word through a simple rule and through association—Veva Leye creates montages that present the same words in completely different ways. Uncannily coagulating, these word images expand and contract in an accordion-like movement. A similar rhythm characterizes Jelle Martens’ (photo)graphic registrations that combine fragments, reproductions and trivial observations into layered prints and drawings. Every print layer, every drawing operates as a temporary frame bringing together images that only temporarily solidify, overlap, and fall apart again. Image and language tumble along, stumble upon. Letters form words form images reading looking.

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.