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.

‘Fabricate Nature’ is an exploration of the way in which we, as human beings, relate to a natural world that is becoming increasingly distorted, yet on which we have simultaneously come to depend to a great extent. This alienation is visible everywhere. The forests we walk through are often man-made and consist of monocultures that take their toll on flora and fauna. The food on shop shelves contains ingredients whose names we can barely read or understand. The landscape around us, too, is increasingly defined by a mechanical, man-made environment. It is precisely this alienation that Matts Nauwelaers seeks to portray in his exhibition. ‘Fabricate Nature’ explores the boundary between the natural and the man-made, and asks how we relate today to a natural world that is increasingly being shaped, adapted and replaced by our own hands.

Jean-Luc Godard’s final film reworked into a room-filling installation by his long-standing collaborator Fabrice Aragno

A mushroom cloud, legends of film history, IS flags, sunsets in Tunis, scenes of flight, expulsion, execution and war: Jean-Luc Godard’s at once poëtic and political film Le livre d’image (2018) spans more than a century. It questions the production of images, art, religion, representation and law.

The filmmaker combined film and contemporary history in five chapters and an epilogue to create an associative collage. The exhibition Sentiments, Signes, Passions is conceived by Fabrice Aragno, filmmaker and longtime collaborator of Godard. It takes up the division of Le livre d’image into chapters, further fragmenting the parts of the work and unfurling them in space. The dynamic projection breaks with the chronological form of a film screening. Across dozens of screens, the audience can give free rein to associations and pursue their own visual lines of sight.

Deeply respectful of his mentor, Aragno travels the world with each time a different version of the installation. For Film Fest Gent he adds a new component, documenting Godard’s personal workspace: Et la nuit le jour.

This internationally acclaimed project offers a rare window into the director’s creative world, inviting visitors to wander through fragments of image and sound and step inside the mind of one of cinema’s most influential figures.

On display in the Zwarte Zaal, from Thursday 8 October to Sunday 18 October, every day from 12:00 to 20:00.

Whilst working on his final major project, Livre d’image, Godard decided that the ideal place and way to watch this film was in his own studio. It is now possible to visit his workplace, albeit relocated to Milan at the Fondazione Prada. Even after his death, the film itself continues to tour and be screened as an installation. To evoke the atmosphere of the studio, the screening space is scented with cigars from his favourite brand.

In the Zwarte Zaal, Fabrice Aragno presents Sentiments, Signes, Passions, a dynamic projection of Jean-Luc Godard’s final film Le livre d’image (2018). Out of deep respect for his mentor, Aragno travels the world, each time presenting a different version of the installation. This time, he captures Godard’s personal workspace: Et la nuit le jour. This can be seen in the cellarium of the Kunstenbibliotheek.

When friends share the stage, the result is guaranteed to be spectacular. This is demonstrated by Shirly Laub (violin), Tony Nys (viola) and Karel Steylaerts (cello), three leading figures from the Belgian classical music scene. Together they are known as TrioFenix and, with the ease characteristic of old friends, they blend their instruments into a harmonious whole. Not only do they have the classical repertoire at their fingertips, but they also relish taking on new challenges, for example in the form of surprising arrangements. This includes Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s arrangement of Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations. In the collective memory, the variations are inextricably linked with the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. However, TrioFenix also does full justice to them in this string trio version.