Artists: MEGAPAUSE (Chris Gillis, Kati Heck, Manon Kündig, Ria Pacquée, Mia Prce & Tina Schott), Oscar Hugal, Sharon Van Overmeiren, Michaël Van Remoortere, Leon Vranken, Hans Wuyts, Tom Volkaert
Exhibition title: Hardcore Impotence (The Dysfunction of the Status Quo)
Curated by: The artists
Venue: As Long As It Takes, Antwerp, Belgium
Date: August 14 – September 12, 2021
Photography: Seppe Elewaut, all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and As Long As It Takes
HARDCORE IMPOTENCE
we were promised freedom
but after years of indolence
of softly being lulled asleep
by the sexless voice of commerce
and pornographic productiveness
we no longer knew what to do with it
it was not that we did not recognize it anymore
freedom had not lost its meaning
the word was still recognizable at least
it was our desire for it that had vanished
we were given a key to a lock that no longer existed
it is difficult now to retrace what happened
the enormity of what was lost some thirty years ago
the first generation that will come to know nothing else
is already being fucked into existence mechanically
without purpose, without transcendence
by the time they have grown up even the rituals
we now still perform to commemorate our downfall
will have become folkloristic at best
if not completely ridiculous
the darkroom of history holds no prisoners
our gardens will be left uncultivated
our statues will crumble and wither
even time will eventually come to a halt
because time needs movement
and movement needs longing
and nobody longs for anything anymore
we have become an impasse
the imploding status quo
this message will reach you like the light
of stars that have already died
crucified to the canvas of an indifferent universe
like the decapitated gods of eras past that were
commemorated in the distances between the constellations
forced to forever witness a world
they thought could not continue
without them
and yet here we are now
one last time
a celebration of what could have been
potential left unused
a destiny unfulfilled
but if we are to become
like the light of stars
let us make sure the explosion
it needs to reach beyond the limits
of the conditions of possibility
of our meager existence
will be a spectacle visible
light years away from here
(Text: Michaël Van Remoortere)
