The film takes the form of an experimental puppet show where we meet four protagonists’ dolls in conversation. Their interaction is constructed around the late New York-based author Kathy Acker and Bjarne Melgaard's parents and sister. The character's dialogue and exchanges are inspired by Acker's pioneering literature that unites impulses from punk, postmodernism and sex-positivist feminism. ‘Let Your Mind Be Your Bed’ was first presented live as a puppet show at Performance Space 122 in New York last year, in the group exhibition ‘Kathy Acker: Who Wants to Be Human All the Time’ (2018) curated by Bjarne Melgaard and Jenny Schlenzka that reassessed the deep and often-unacknowledged influence of the iconic, radical and uncompromising writer, who died twenty years ago.
Bjarne Melgaard’s formative years as an artist are inextricably linked to the history of S.M.A.K. His work was included in two major exhibitions, namely ‘De Rode Poort’ (1996) and ‘De Opening’ (1999). During the heydays of neo-conceptualism in the mid-1990s, Melgaard broke through with paintings, sculptures and installations imbued with desire and sexuality, and which explored the boundaries of the permissible and the prevailing morality. His work ‘Moon over Islam’ (1999) is currently on display as part of the exhibition ‘Highlights for a Future, The Collection (I)’,
Practical information
- Thursday 26 September 2019 - 7.30 pm.
- Free entrance.
- Reservation via reservation@smak.be.
- In English.
