The Other Country. L'autre Pays
Published by WIELS, contemporary art centre (Brussels) and Sternberg Press (Berlin), in collaboration with Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou (Paris)
With support from Jubilee—platform for artistic research, and a/r (art & recherche, Brussels).
Volume IV of Vincent Meessen's publication project Prospectus
On the occasion of the solo exhibitions Sire, je suis de l'ôtre pays (WIELS, 2016), and Omar in May (Centre Pompidou, 2018) Vincent Meessen edited this artist book. It includes essays by Pedro Monaville, Stefano Collicelli Cagol and Ruth Baumeister, a dialogue between Tom McDonough and Vincent Meessen, a visual essay by Vincent Meessen and reprints or the first publication of texts by Guy Debord, Omar Blondin Diop and Diangani Lungela. With support by Jubilee – platform for artistic research, and a/r (art & recherche, Brussels).
At the heart of these contributions are the untold histories and unexpected topicality of the Situationist International, modernity’s last international avant-garde, which reconsidered so radically the relationships between art, politics and everyday life. Previously unpublished texts and reprints by Guy Debord, Lungela Diangani and Omar Blondin Diop explore in particular the Situationist International’s influence in black African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.
Installation views of the exhibitions show furthermore how Meessen uses original documents in order to re-evaluate their political potential in the present. As such, the book generously reflects on the artist’s discursive, collaborative and para-curatorial activity of the past four years.