Catalogue > At random

What kind of futures can be read in the impersonal fragments of our reality? It’s a question that inevitably gains attention and importance when it’s posed to those who the future, pre-eminently, belongs to. Already in her debut film, Little Figures (2003), Sarah Vanagt gauged the historical imagination of children by inviting immigrant children to improvise an imaginary conversation between three historical figures, immortalized as statues, in Brussels. Fifteen years and many transformations later, she decided to reverse the question and ask children to read the future in the elusive imprints of their city. Onto countless abstract patterns, brought to life with the help of an old magic lantern, children from Brussels, Athens and Sarajevo project their own impressions, dreams and fears. The result is a form of “magical reading”, as the perception of unforeseen correspondences and constellations that confront us with the undercurrent of the present.

Sarah Vanagt (1976) makes documentaries, video installations and photos, in which she combines her interest for history with her interest for (the origins of) cinema. Her work includes films such as After Years of Walking (2003), Little Figures (2003), Begin Began Begun (2005), Boulevard d'Ypres (2010), The Corridor (2010), Dust Breeding (2013); and video installations such as Les Mouchoirs de Kabila (2005), Power Cut (2007), Ash Tree (2007). Her work is shown at film festivals (FidMarseille, Viennale, Doclisboa, Idfa Amsterdam, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Madrid/Berlin, Hors Pistes Centre Pompidou), and in museums (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Fact Liverpool, NGBK Berlin, Shedhalle Zürich). The silent short film Girl with a fly (2013) was first shown at the 5th Biennale of Moscow. The films In Waking Hours (2015) and Still Holding Still (2015) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The installation Showfish was presented in M HKA, the Museum for Contemporary Art of Antwerp in October 2016. Vanagt's new film DIVINATIONS had its Belgian avant-première at the opening night of the festival Courtisane in Ghent (3 April 2019).