Kris Van Aken

Kris Van Aken (1983) is a Dutch writer and artist, mainly working with performance. Manipulating the viewer into confusion, Van Aken often creates several practically identical works, in which thoughts that have apparently just been developed manifest themselves: notes are made and crossed out, “mistakes” are repeated. By demonstrating the omnipresent lingering of a “corporate world”, their works reference post-colonial theory as well as the avant-garde or the post-modern and the left-wing democratic movement as a form of resistance against the logic of the capitalist market system. They are currently based in Berlin. 

Girl by Lukas Dhont

Kris Van Aken, 2019
ARTICLE
19.06.2019
NL EN

Girl thrives on impersonal voyeurism. Not unlike the scenes in front of the mirror, the scenes with the doctor, psychologist and dance teacher turn the audience into bystanders of a process of certification. When Lara, at the end of her journey, confidently looks into the camera in a Brussels metro station, she also looks us, her “jury”, straight in the eyes. It’s as if she knew all along that someone had been watching in the background. “Here I am,” she seems to say, “now you know what I’ve been through. Now I can come to terms with myself.”

Girl van Lukas Dhont

Kris Van Aken, 2019
ARTICLE
10.04.2019
NL EN

Girl leeft van een onpersoonlijk voyeurisme. Net zoals de sessies voor de spiegel maken de scènes bij de dokter, psycholoog en dansleraar het publiek omstander van een certificatieproces. Wanneer Lara op het einde van haar reis in een Brusselse metrogang zelfverzekerd in de camera kijkt, kijkt ze ook ons, haar “jury”, recht in de ogen. Het is alsof ze al die tijd wist dat er iemand in de achtergrond zat mee te kijken. “Hier ben ik,” lijkt ze te zeggen, “nu weten jullie wat ik heb doorgemaakt. Nu kan ik met mezelf in het reine komen.”