Laure Prouvost and Alex Cecchetti: Occupie Paradit

"Come, come, come to paradise,” called the siren from the rooftop. Lonely and invisible, she longs for love and empathy. The world is presently cold, desolate and hard. There is no space or time left, so come and occupy me, the institution shouts. Here representation soon becomes reality, fiction reveals itself as the life of the artists, as your life.

Occupie Paradit is a palate cleanser, taking away conventions and conformism and the bad taste this might leave. Instead you will be introduced to all the secret little passages of our paradise. Snakes will implore you to avoid the apple of knowledge: "don’t waste your time with it," they will say, "because far better is the joy of wine." 

For the exhibition Occupie Paradit, artists Alex Cecchetti and Laure Prouvost transform the space of Netwerk Aalst into an immersive multivocal installation providing a space for discovery and social encounter, a "fantastical" yet occupied paradise. The artists lead you through secret passages and strange environments where you hear stories about the cosmos and love. There you can drink potions in the Love Bar and feel time stand still, albeit just for a while. A Community of Snakes conceived by Alex Cecchetti will on various occasions activate the paradise and its fruits, providing guidance, confusion and new insights to the brave visitors open to perdition. 

From the May 3, 2020, the space will also host Love among the Artists, an ongoing project by Laure Prouvost. Friends are invited to  inhabit and respond to the portrayed paradise. Love among the Artists takes the title of the book by George Bernhard Shaw as its point of departure. It questions with a sense of humor the peculiar position artists are considered to play within society.

Occupie Paradit is curated by Piet Mertens and Pieternel Vermoortel.

Live events and public programme

The Astronaut Metaphor
Politics, aesthetics and the human

For the upcoming three years Netwerk Aalst will inform and challenge itself through The Astronaut Metaphor an evolving programme on politics, aesthetics and the human. What is the position and role that artists, writers, thinkers and institutions and their responsive practices can take up within a complex public sphere? The exhibition Occupie Paradit launches the programme The Astronaut Metaphor and introduces us to some of the initial concerns with a dialectic approach. What is the role of love and empathy and what force can exercise across actors? 

With the upcoming programme The Astronaut Metaphor, Netwerk Aalst wishes to understand what an integral support for artists can entail, how we can rethink the institution departing from the needs and wishes of artistic practices holding the here and now of Aalst as its compass. The programme will be formulated through its accumulative list of participants for the upcoming three years. The Astronaut Metaphor is a publication written by Petra Trivisi and published by Duvida Press.

A series of gatherings, The Bodies, envisioned and guided by curator Nick Aikens will be held over the course of the The Astronaut Metaphor. Aikens and the artistic team of Netwerk Aalst invite a group of selected guests to meet twice a year and reflect independently on forms of governance whilst at the same time infiltrating Netwerk Aalst’s programme and institutional model. These encounters are conceived as an opportunity to formulate visions—with the participants and in dialogue with, and ultimately for the institution. What form these visions will take is yet unclear and it will shape during the course of the enquiring process and devised by artistic and collective thinking. 

The first encounter of The Bodies will be on the 2nd and 3rd of April 2020. As part of The Bodies: Nick Aikens, Bianca Baldi, Jeremiah Day, Laurens Dhaenens, Lucile Desamory, Dora García, Agnieszka Gratza, Wendy Morris, Vanessa Joan Müller and Netwerk Aalst. 

More information about The Astronaut Metaphor programme

Occupie Paradit was realized with the support of
Traudi Messini, Pinus Cembra, Cedrus Libani, Cypress, Agne Bujniak, Lucia Pietroiusti; The Community of Snakes, 3D Wood GmbH, A Tour De Bras (ceramic studio, Paris), Studio Laure Prouvost (Maud Gyssels, Mia Tamme, Fran Hawker, Dóra Benyó, Jan Van den Bosch, Tom Hallet, Katrijn Van Bree, Ciaràn Wood), Kunstgieterij De Clercq – Ginsberg, Kaatje en Zoon (Stained glass studio), Quartz Céramique Bruxelles, Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris and Brussels), Lisson Gallery (London, New York and Shanghai), Guido De Bruyn, Alain Verleysen and carlier | gebauer (Berlin and Madrid).

Netwerk Aalst is an open house, an international centre for contemporary art and an independent cinema located in Aalst, Belgium. Netwerk Aalst is supported by Flanders State of the Art and the City of Aalst. Netwerk Aalst is... Hans Bocxstael, Veerle Coppens, Hester Daems, Charlotte Geeraert, Piet Mertens, Steven Op de Beeck, Bjorn Pauwels, Céline Roelandt, Sara Van den Eynde, Jeniffer Vansteyvoort, Dietger Vanweynsberghe, Willem Vermeersch en Pieternel Vermoortel.