Initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist Koen Vanmechelen invites you inside his overactive but quarantined brain and takes you with him on his journey of discovery. He reaches out to different experts in the world. Together, they reflect on the evolving legacy of the human animal and explore the different ways we choose to live together.
Artist Koen Vanmechelen in conversation with the ecosystem.
Coming out of the pandemic - we have seen this huge human awareness of social injustice. This is a moment of social change we have not seen since 1968.
Uncomfortable
It’s been over five months since COVID-19 forced us into a new way of connecting.
In this third episode of The Battery Channel, UNCOMFORTABLE, Koen talks to Jill Silverman Van Coenegrachts, international curator and art advisor. Together they explore the meaning of this moment in time.
A conversation on art and COVID-19, on Joseph Beuys, on balance and nature.
On the link between George Floyd and the pandemic,
On racism and quarantine,
On human sacrifice and on our better angels.
The sculpture
UNCOMFORTABLE –
defines this episode and title
A child sits rigidly upright. It is naked, blind-folded, and it does not move. It is searching for clues about the environment it happens to be in. Its receptors try to sense the world around it. Its auditory system works, as well as its touch system, its balance, smell, and taste systems. But without vision, it feels vulnerable.
The blindfold protects the child against surroundings corroded by factors unknown and forbidden. Who decided to shield it from the now and the future? Will the lowering of the blindfold help or impair its future? Will vision anchor it into one of many possible worlds? Or is it the possibility of future vision that makes it feel so uncomfortable?
Children are our immune system, their future is our health
Koen Vanmechelen -
How do our choices impact the next generation?
How do we decide how we live together?
And who are we?
Does art have a role to play?
Jill and Koen explore art as knowledge and discussion platform
and end with a message of hope.
Listen to The Battery Channel
The pandemic has brought a profound change to our sensitivities as one global community. And I believe art and the art world have a huge role to play in whatever is coming next.