

This short film is an extension of a screening/performance of one of my short films in July 2021 for the Triennale Brugge 2021. The setting is an abandoned house close to the screening/performance, slightly eerie but comfortable. As an artist, there is a strange void, a busy silence, between the public and the presented artwork. A somehow sad and melancholic place, however, also glowing with support and creative, fireworks inside. It feeds me like fresh rain. The title is a conceptual play on Marina Abramovic’s “The artist is present” (2009). Also, one of my idioms as an artist has been to make a short film out of a public performance of one of my short films. “How meta can one be?”, the comment of an attendee of the screening/performance upon revealing my filming-the-film-screening plans. It turned out to be an interesting reflective and creative starting point, resulting in this experience-based, poetic audio-visual voyage.
Directed by Nikolaas Boucquey (Belgium)