Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

As a pioneer of performance art in Belgium, Hugo Roelandt questioned processes of normalisation in society. His series of Post-Performance works were intended to take disavow traditional performance in favour of societally-engaged performative actions. His intervention Bezetting Groendalstraat (Occupation Groendalstraat) involved a number of collaborators occupying a small shopping street in central Antwerp. Two different recordings were made of the intervention. The collaborators spread around in the street at regular distances, forcing pedestrians to walk in and around them to get past. Though the occupation was peaceful, we see responses ranging from dismissive or curious through to irritation. Roelandt was concerned with forces that affect our individual and collective behaviour. This gesture, disrupting the flow of traffic, can be seen as a critique of capitalism and our blind devotion to it.