Voor Comic Relief & Een Vrouwenlichaam
The dressing room, the stage, the gaze… they define and shape your existence. But what if your own form no longer fits? What if the multitude of forms leaves you spoilt for choice? What if you don’t align with yourself? Did you ever really? Two experimental poetry films (A Woman’s Body & For Comic Reliefs) explore contrasting relationships with form: an excess and a deficiency.
It all begins with form. Form defines the multitude. We capture it with words and objects. We fill it out with masks and characters. We set to work with it, filling our pockets and even the pockets within our pockets. Now we can set off with it. Are we sure we haven’t forgotten anything? Does everything really fit in that bag? The multitude of forms in a new form? Absolutely everything? Doubt overtakes us from the outside. So it isn’t in there, and is therefore justified. We empty our bags again. We turn them upside down and the shapes spill out. First, the words and objects pour out. Then come the matters and things, the details and characteristics, the masks and the characters. Buried under bags full of things you didn’t realise could all fit inside, you start to wonder which form to tackle first, and whether there’s one that can hold it all… or perhaps nothing at all? The poetry film remains an unknown genre in Belgium for the time being. There is no consensus on what a poetry film is or how it should function. In this project, the poetry film is used as an invitation to free association. Just as poetry uses association to put into words feelings and experiences we seem unable to grasp, the poetry film seeks to depict this associative process visually. But whilst the words of poetry respond to life, the poetry film reflects on poetry itself. In this way, the poetry film doubles the distance to its subject of association, and this is where its experimental nature stems from. The artistic duo, Alexandra Van Laeken and Marie Dom, have been making experimental poetry films since 2025. Their previous film was nominated for the NPF (Dutch Poetry Film Festival), amongst other awards, and received an honourable mention at the LA International Poetry Film Festival.
Translated from Dutch