Opening: friday 30 september, 19u00
Roncada is not interested in a literal depiction of the trauma of migration, nor of the emotions that obviously accompany this. He prefers an oblique approach, for example through the landscape, which seems to be scored through with the imprints left by movement.
The key works in the exhibition are The Night Hike Project series – photos of people trying to illegally cross the American border. The photos are loaded with tension and ambiguity – as is the story behind them. Roncada took the photos in a village where, every Saturday night, a ‘caminata nocturna’ takes place: an nocturnal hike on foot with the aim of reaching ‘America’. At least, so it seems. The whole situation is staged: the human traffickers and border guards are played by actors. The border has been moved for the evening, by some hundreds of kilometres. During the trip, reality and illusion merge.
Arno Roncada (Genk, 1973) studied at the Media & Design Academy in Genk and at the HISK in Antwerp. This spring, he gave a workshop in Zacatecas (MX) at which young artists investigated the theme of migration on the basis of their own personal surroundings.
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 11u00 - 18u00; Sat & Sun 13u00 - 18u00
Admission free