Press release

(EN) À donner, chat perdu — under this title, Nicolas (°2000) portrays an otherwise invisible undercurrent of supply and demand. An 80’s alarm system with dog barking leads us into a space with ever-changing object and sound compositions. Together, they form a kind of soundscape. A bit like walking into a busy street or metro and at the same time being able or willing to tune in to everything and nothing. From the association with the to-give objects of Brussels’ streets, things seem to become tangible. Telephones, an otherwise perhaps never-listened-to cassette with multilingual voicemail messages, a street musician, dirt in the border but equally straight in the face, whining, cables running along the wall and half-open poster frames, rammed windows, tags on prefabs, a sudden bell, but also continuous buzzing sounds. Or more specifically, in all the dissonance, miscommunication and dysfunctionality, we discern a quirky, vibrant portrait of an elusive capital city and its more than one million inhabitants. Are we experiencing a kind of never-before-seen advertisement for the city here? A celebration of its chaotic, fragmented, multilingual and musical character? The throbbing, naturally interlocking nature of the compositions leads us to conclude that the artist is in his element here.It feels like a challenge he has taken up and succeeded in without even explicitly naming anything. There is a talent in evoking this kind of personal interpretation and forcing time, attention and isolation to arrive at this. This is not about immediate contact, but about trying to reach the viewer with varying degrees of success. ‘Leave a message after the beep — tuut tuut tuut.’