Thursday 25 September 2025
10:00–13:00
Beursschouwburg (Brussels)
Program
Fifty years after his assassination, Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo, is back to haunt Belgium. Through commemorations and encounters, the top-ranking Belgian civil servant who was in Elisabethville on that tragic day of 17 January 1961 attempts to exorcise the ghosts of the past. To the sound of St John Passion by J.S. Bach, Spectres immerses us into one of the darkest days of the decolonisation of the Belgian Congo. An examination of the biopolitical body, this feature-length film by Sven Augustijnen exposes the fine line separating legitimisation and historiography and the traumatic issue of responsibility and debt.
Spectres won the Public Libraries Prize and GNCR Prize and received a special mention from the jury of the International Competition at FID Marseille (FR). It won the Prize of the Flemish Community at Festival Filmer à Tout Prix (BE).
In the presence of Sven Augustijnen
About Sven Augustijnen
Sven Augustijnen (°1970) lives and works in Brussels. His films, publications and installations on political, historical and social themes constantly challenge the genre of the documentary, reflecting a wider interest in historiography and a predilection for the nature of storytelling: ‘Historiography is by no means a natural phenomenon. The way we use stories, images and fiction to construct reality and history fascinates me.’ He had solo-shows at Wiels, Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels; de Appel, arts centre, Amsterdam; Malmö Konsthall; Vox, Centre pour l’Image contemporaine, Montréal; CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson. Recent group-shows include The Unfinshed Conversation, The Power Plant, Toronto, Gestures and archives of the present, genealogies of the future, Biennale Tapei, Living Together, Kunsthal Vienna and Congoville, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp. Sven Augustijnen is represented by Jan Mot, Brussels and is a founding member of Auguste Orts, Brussels.
Practical Information
Date: Thursday 25 September 2025
Time: 10:00–13:00
Venue: Beursschouwburg (rue Auguste Orts, Brussels)
Tickets give access to the entire program on Thursday 25 September:
10:00-13:00 | Case-study: Spectres, by Sven Augustijnen
14:00-16:00 | Screening 1 Le Fresnoy : An Ocean of Images — Perception(s) and Post-Truth
16:30-18:30 | Screening 2 Le Fresnoy : Communities, groups, and collective myths