ONE
Anouk De Clercq
"The highest form of imagination is to put yourself in the place
of someone else. To become the other. To become one with
that which is different."
– Anouk De Clercq, Here it comes, the future
One is a short film in black and white in which performer Helga Davis takes you on a multi-voiced manifesto. From behind five microphones, and with a look that is both compelling and vulnerable, Daivs invites the audience to participate in a "proud we-moment of many voices". She calls for a quiet revolution in which - despite our differences - we try to share her view of the world and that of others.
One is a film, a performance, a 21st century protest song, a call to action, a pledge, a commitment, a solemn undertaking, a summoning of consciousness, an instruction, a stand against mindlessness and distraction, an art of limits, an active silence, a difficult love. And an invitation. To drink in the vibrancy of life at all scales. To embrace complexity and attend to our world with a befitting vibrancy of feeling. – Anouk De Clercq
Ideas of polyphony and collectivity are strongly present in the content and production process of One. The text of the manifesto is a collage of words and sentences by De Clercq and fragments of texts inspired by a large number of authors: Maggie Nelson, Kae Tempest, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Maree Brown, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Mead & James Baldwin (their conversation in A Rap on Race), Annie Dillard, Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler,.... The work is also the result of a close collaboration and open conversation with all members of the team. As Geert Van der Speeten stated in his review of the artists’ solo exhibition in CC Strombeek: "De Clercq openly opts for collectivity. Her way of working together shows empathy: music makers, actors, illuminators and stylists are co-authors with her."
2020 – video, b/w, 16:9, stereo, BE/NO, 6:30
Courtesy of the artist
Anouk De Clercq
°1971, Ghent, Belgium
Anouk De Clercq explores in her practice the potential of audiovisual language to create possible worlds. Fascinated by what lies behind ‘reality’ or in between the visible and the imaginary, her work takes the shape of film, video and text. Her recent work is based on the utopian idea of ‘radical empathy’.
The work of Anouk De Clercq has been shown in Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, MAXXI, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Ars Electronica, among others, and received several awards, including the Illy Prize at Art Brussels in 2005 and a Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention in 2014. Anouk De Clercq is a guest professor at the School of Arts / University College Ghent and a founding member of Auguste Orts.