On Friday, 14th March, at 6:00 PM, the solo exhibition ‘We’ll find you when the sun goes black’ by Belgian multimedia artist Anouk De Clercq will open at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius.
From the depths of the CAC Cinema Hall, the sounds of Anouk De Clercq’s exhibition drift through the bright corridors of the second floor of the Contemporary Art Centre, enveloping visitors in an otherworldly birdsong and inviting them to pause and embrace a world without us. One of the video works in the exhibition depict two birds in a weightless realm, their songs summoning the sun – until an eclipse reveals the stars. Birdsong reflects on beginnings and endings, offering a meditation on a world where humanity no longer exists – a postlapsarian paradise, a kind of love at last sight.
Echoes of this theme are reflected in the second video piece, We’ll find you when the sun goes black, which interprets the historical use of the ’terrella’, a small magnetised model representing the Earth. First pioneered by the scientist William Gilbert and later refined by Christian Birkeland, the terrella has been used to study natural phenomena including the aurora. The simulation of the Earth’s magnetic field and the resulting auroral displays mirror the cosmic events in the exhibition and their fleeting beauty.
The exhibition also echoes Bertolt Brecht’s poignant reflections from his Svendborg Poems, written during his exile in 1939: ‘In the dark times / Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing / About the dark times.’ De Clercq’s work embodies this sentiment, using art to reflect on and discover beauty in the darkness, much like Brecht reflected on expression in troubled times.
The soundtracks in both videoworks are composed by Vessel, a composer known for his innovative electronic and contemporary instrumental music. Vessel’s music sounds both ancient and unmistakably contemporary, reinforcing the works’ themes of timeless communication.
ANOUK DE CLERCQ (b.1971, Belgium) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection of film, music and architecture. With a background in both music and film, she creates immersive audiovisual experiences that often challenge traditional notions of narrative and perception.
De Clercq’s practice is characterised by a deep interest in the poetic potential of moving images. Her work often focuses on imaginary and utopian landscapes, which she brings to life through a combination of digital techniques and analogue sensibilities. By removing extraneous details, De Clercq invites viewers into contemplative spaces, often blurring the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, the visible and the imaginary.
Her recent work is based on the utopian idea of ‘radical empathy’, exploring the potential of audiovisual language to create possible worlds.
De Clercq’s work has been shown at Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; MAXXI, Rome; Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève; BOZAR, Brussels; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Berlinale; and Ars Electronica, Linz, among others. She is a visiting professor of the School of Arts University College Ghent, a founding member of Auguste Orts, and the initiator of Monokino.
She is also the author of Where is Cinema, published by Archive Books.
