A Million Keys

I was excited to come across this short excerpt from the documentary Sad In Country which contains an interview with Danny Devos and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven of Club Moral. I’ve mentioned the collective on the blog before as well as their podcast, which provides extensive audio and video documentation from their archives. The synopsis of Sad In Country (below) looks interesting, I wish the entire documentary was available online.

Belgium is a country well noted for its ‘vagueness’ and taking this into account, this Belgian film delves into the world of ‘quasi’ cultural forms. One of the vaguest notions in the cultural lexicon is that of the ‘collective’ and this film explores, through a non hierarchical system of montage, collective art actions in Belgium and their intersection with dominant and subcultural political and cultural ideologies that brushed against them.

The film is neither an obituary for cultural idealism nor a bittersweet tale of Utopian dreams of a ‘better way of life’ but a series of encounters raising questions about the collective archetypes which emerged during its research and shooting : ranging from micro-institution, family, enterprise, political party to the orgy. “Is it alive, or is it dead?” is what Alain Resnais stated was the only question worth asking in art and thus this film uses its medium as a tool of research to consider the worth and the worthlessness of history.

‘Sad In Country (Part 1)’ covers six Belgian collectives : Agency (Brussels, 1992). Building Underwood (Brussels / Caudiès, 1999-2001), VAGA, A379089 (Antwerp, 1968-1969), Rona Family (Brussels), Club Moral (Antwerp, 1981-2005).