Cross Critique: Experiments in Art Criticism

A collaborative art critique residency took place at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. For 5 days, 12 international critics, video- and sound artists worked together to re-invent classic forms of art criticism. Forget that dry black print on white paper and immerse yourself in the mesmerizing longreads and podcasts about La Plaza by El Conde de Torrefiel and La Reprise by Milo Rau…

Cross Critique is the name of the annual lab of rekto: verso at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, in collaboration with Domein voor Kunstkritiek and Institute of Network Cultures. A year after the first edition in 2017, Cross Critique gathered again at the Beursschouwburg to share impressions and reflections with the aim to only come out again with alternative forms of art criticism, digital proof.

Text, image and sound

Why? Because we refuse to acknowledge the decline of art criticism and we refuse to believe that the ’traditional’ textual form of art criticism today is the only option. As  the internet and social media offer so many new possibilities and constantly push the boundaries of communication, we like to experiment with (possible) relations between text, image and sound.

Results

A house with many room for La Plaza: In La Plaza of the Spanish duo El Conde de Torrefiel, Axel Andersson, Alda Snopek, Beatrice Puijk, Rosa Ronsdorf, Alexandra Duvekot, Jozien Wijkhuijs & Jorne Vriens saw an equally existential and touching reflection on the relationship between public and private space in the modern metropolis. They translated the experience of the performance into a hotel with many rooms. Relive the performance here, by clicking on the appropriate windows.

Anything but one single monologue:Camilla Caré offers – with the mouse pointer on you screen – a choice between two additional perspectives on La Plaza by El Conde de Torrefiel, Dying on stage by Christodoulos Panayiotou, Paradise Now by Michiel Vandevelde and One or several tigers by Ho Tzu Nyen.

A tragic menu of options for La Reprise: Wouter Hillaert is presenting a ‘tree of choices’ of the latest tragedy of Milo Rau. It examines the art of the tragedy and the pitfalls to decision-making. Don’t get trapped (but sure you will…).