SELECTIVE SOLIDARITY

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Thomas Bellinck

07/04/20

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The overcrowded camps, the bilateral agreements with authoritarian regimes and the condoning of illegal pushback operations are no aberrations, but precisely the core of our EU border regime, in which violence and humanitarianism invariably go hand in hand.
In this respect, the Belgian federal and regional governments’ calls for ‘heart-warming solidarity’ among citizens do not contradict their utter lack of adequate care for people whom they do not recognise as citizens.

NATIONAL

ANTHEM

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Thomas Bellinck

09/09

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I got so worked up these past few months, dear Mr director, whenever you organised another temporary artistic occupation by undocumented people who dined, slept and shared some cuddly audience participation with the visitors to your institution. Until your immigration-themed week was over and the undocumented people could piss off. A genuine occupation, dear Mr director, inevitably ends in a hunger strike. Because in the end this is always the last resort. A two-month hunger strike equals a three-month reprieve. Such is the unwritten rule in this country. You may not like it, but this is how the game is played. Unless we change the game.

The Museum of Mental Furniture

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An van. Dienderen

ROSINE MBAKAM

Thomas Bellinck

31/03/21

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The Museum of Mental Furniture was born from our desire to come to terms with the mental categories instilled in us—the frames and moulds that shape how we think about each other and ourselves. Rather than hide this mental furniture that we inherited, borrowed, or adopted in some basement, we wanted to create a shared depository where it can be stored in plain sight.

That’s My

Life Jacket!

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An van. DieAn an. DANienderennderen

AN VAN. Dienderen

Thomas Bellinck

30/11/20

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As documentary artists, we argue that 'Human Flow' doesn’t address the power differentials between its maker and its subjects, despite its use of formal tropes reassuring the audience that it’s a critical and activist documentary. The film actually traffics in the problematic and dominant imagery of illegalised travellers as helpless victims. Confirming the status quo, it stuns both its subjects and its viewers while taking from both any possible breadth of change. As such, it turns its subjects into taxidermic objects.