News
About Ijsbreker: the artistic scene in Belgium in 1983/1984
25 February 2008
On 25 February, Koen Brams and Dirk Pültau will be giving a presentation on the Jef Cornelis TV programmes IJsbreker and De Langste Dag, at Art Cinema OffOff, Begijnhof Ter Hoye, Lange Violettestraat 237, 9000 Ghent.
In 1983 and 1984 Jef Cornelis and his colleagues of the newly erected Art Issues Service of the then BRT realised the monthly TV programme IJsbreker, of which a total of 22 episodes were produced. Each episode of IJsbreker featured a cultural topic, in the widest sense of the word, ranging from 'culture in the papers' to 'computer art, from 'fashion' to 'tattoos'. IJsbreker was a live programme, with speakers on different locations. Various locations were connected with each other and the studio. Communication – or the lack of it – could only be accomplished using countless cameras and TV monitors.
The presentation focuses on four episodes of IJsbreker, in which aspects of fine art are under discussion: IJsbreker 1 on Panamarenko, IJsbreker 4 on art for sale, IJsbreker 18 on art on the coast and IJsbreker 22 on cultural management. A representative fragment from each episode of IJsbreker will be shown and clarified, thus rendering an image of the unique format of IJsbreker, while also showing the artistic scene in Belgium at that time. The presentation will be rounded off with a fragment from De Langste Dag, sometimes called the 23rd episode of IJsbreker, since this live broadcast of the start of the summer of art in Ghent, in 1986, was made completely in conformity with the IJsbreker format.
About Container: the changing (public) place of the intellectual in Flanders in 1989
20 September 2007
Koen Brams (director Jan van Eyck Academie) and Dirk Pültau (editor-in-chief De Witte Raaf) will talk about the television programme Container, realized by the Belgian television maker Jef Cornelis and broadcast by the BRT (the Dutch-speaking Belgian Television Company) in 1989. In Container, three or four intellectuals would discuss different subjects, which, in one way or another, were all concerned with 'the archaeology of modernity' (see also Documenta's questions concerning the archaeology of modernity). They would conduct an hour-long high-brow discussion, sitting in a newly designed Container, on themes like 'the storehouse', 'theatrality' and 'Don Juan'. The format of the discussion was entirely free and did not concern itself with any kind of television format. After presenting Container, Koen Brams and Dirk Pültau will talk about the (public) position of the intellectual in Flanders, which changed considerably around 1989, coinciding with the broadcasts of Container and its hostile reception on the one hand, and the start of commercial television in Flanders, on the other.
Heine's Paper Cone: intellectuals about intellectuals (with the help of some painters)
20 September, 16.00 h.
In the afternoon, one particular episode of Container will be shown (with English subtitles) and discussed in a workshop: De Puntzak van Heine (Heine's paper cone). In this daring episode Lieven De Cauter, Bart Verschaffel (the anchormen), Rudi Laermans and Paul De Vylder (the guests) used letters written by 19th-century writers and philosophers to discuss the way intellectuals deal with history. The letters were read live in the studio, while, at the same time, images were shown of 19th-century paintings and engravings, as well as television images. Using an extremely associative and provocative 'montage' of text and images, Heine's Paper Cone can probably be considered as the most experimental television programme ever broadcast in Flanders.
For one week, a small exhibition about Container and the work of Jef Cornelis in general will be set up in the magazine section of the library. Apart from the issue of De Witte Raaf devoted to Container and the (public) position of the intellectual, a website about the work of Jef Cornelis and a selection of fragments of Cornelis' films will also be presented. Last but not least, the event will feature the presentation of a book, comprising the English translation of an annotated interview with Jef Cornelis about Container, which was first published in Dutch – without notes – in the abovementioned issue of De Witte Raaf. The book is published by De Witte Raaf, Jan van Eyck Academie and Marcelum Boxtareos.