On the occasion of the exhibition 'NBD – a look at Kempen skate culture', which will occupy our Luifelzaal this summer, de Warande invites artist and filmmaker Ans Mertens to present her film installation 'Reel Real Double Time' to be screened in our Houten Zaal.

Reels of rehearsal, reels of failure, reels of play, reels of boredom. Ordered chronologically these reels seek for rhythmns, repetition and chance. Reel Real Double Time is the result of two summers of hanging and skating. Against a backdrop of rumors about an imminent skate ban on the iconic theater square in Antwerp, the urban infrastructure is being questioned through filming together with a group of street skaters. Infrastructure is not only understood as the architecture and spatial arrangement of the city, but also as the temporal structures of urban life. Not just the benches, railings and concrete walls, but also the ‘ledges’ between time of use and time of meaning are being played with. Together with the skaters, Ans Mertens seeks out the tension between chronos and kairos while filming.

Ans Mertens (°1989, living and working in between Antwerp & Brussels) is a visual artist investigating the intersection of time, film and the exhibition space. Her work shows that time, perhaps more than space, is the ultimate subject of attention: time captured, time chased. Arranged, erased, wasted. Leisurely spent, unspectacularly passed. She currently works on her Ph.D. in artistic research “The (Dis)Appearance of Time” at LUCA School of Arts.

Artists: Ans Mertens