Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

The installation Je connais des gens qui sont morts, part of the Almost Cinema exhibition, presents a bizarre and unsettling display. Blow-up objects fill up with air, only to deflate moments later. In the process, plastic bodies coil in impossible positions, completely dependent on their ‘breathing apparatus’. Glass panes, scattered in the space, catch the reflection of video images that amplify the chilling atmosphere of the work.

Visual artist Kurt D’Haeseleer & performer Bérengère Bodin found inspiration for Je Connais… in the book Liquid Life by Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Just like the book that constituted the inspiration for it, the installation is a commentary on a society that is entirely focused on flexibility and change.

At regular times dancer Bérengère Bodin appears in the installation. She moves between the constantly changing landscapes of blow-up objects, using the manipulated objects and floating video images as ingredients for a bizarre mating dance.