Anouk De Clercq: Love that Moves the Sun

Curator: Karen Verschooren, STUK

A love song as a space. Something grand and majestic and tender.

A film to walk in. A forest and a continuous dawn.

STUK is delighted to present a new film installation by Belgian-born, Berlin-based artist Anouk De Clercq. With Love that Moves the Sun, she leads us into a vast forest landscape shaped by personal experiences in nature and forests at night—a world where darkness unfolds in many shades. It is a haunted but wondrous place: stars drift slowly, meteor showers blaze across the sky, fireflies dance, and animals gather to sing up the sun. 

The forest becomes both witness and protagonist, observing all that passes through it while telling its own story. It speaks in its own tones: the rich, layered soundscape, composed by Vessel and Rakhi Singh, draws a clear contrast between the intimate sounds of the forest and something more distant, emerging from beyond. Holding both beauty and unease, the work is a meditation on a world without us—an animated panorama in which light, time and nature are given space to thrive. The camera and the sun move in synchrony, tracing a cyclical rhythm that evokes an eternal order—larger than ourselves, yet reassuring in its repetition.

At the heart of this work lies an invisible force, an energy that propels everything forward, even the sun itself. It is a poem of hope: immersive, intoxicating, and alive with the sense that everything remains in motion. Love that Moves the Sun is an invitation to find a home within that movement.

 The exhibition Love That Moves The Sun is part of a series of solo exhibitions in STUK by contemporary visual artists who have a particular affinity for the moving image. Previous exhibitions in this series include Elisabeth Subrin—How We Find Her; Saodat Ismailova—Her Journeys, Her Lives; Raven Chacon—Rift Variations: Collaborative Video Works; Liz Magic Laser—Convulsive States; Ben Rivers—It’s About Time; Helen Cammock—Beneath the Surface of Skin; Mircea Cantor—Am I really free?; Angela Washko—Point of View; Sebastián Díaz Morales—Talk with Dust; Mika Taanila—The End; Nevin Aladağ—Rollin’; Omer Fast—Appendix; Joachim Koester—Maybe this act, this work, this thing; Emre Hüner—Neochronophobiq; John Akomfrah—Auto Da Fé; and Bjørn Melhus—The Theory of Freedom.

About Anouk De Clercq
Anouk De Clercq (1971, Ghent, Belgium) is an artist and filmmaker whose practice is rooted in the poetic potential of moving images. She builds audiovisual environments that draw viewers into contemplative, imagined landscapes where image and sound converge into something sensed as much as seen. Her work emerges from the joy of collaboration—with composers, animators, and the viewer, whom she trusts to complete the work. Her films and installations have been featured in major international exhibitions and film festivals, including the Berlinale, BOZAR, Centre Pompidou, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, MAXXI and the Tate Modern. Anouk De Clercq has also received numerous accolades, such as the Illy Prize at Art Brussels and the Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention. Beyond her own work, she tends the ecosystem of artists’ film. She is co-founder of Auguste Orts, a Brussels-based film production and distribution platform, and initiator of Monokino, a nomadic cinema oriented around the sea. She is the author of Where is Cinema, published by Archive Books, and a studio professor at the KASK School of Arts.

All works: courtesy of the artist 

Please contact Sarah Verhoeven at pers[at]stuk.be for press inquiries or Karen Verschooren at karen.verschooren[at]stuk.be for further inquiries regarding the exhibition.