untitled (The Belgium Affair)

The title refers to the Dutroux affair, the shocking story of the kidnapped, sexually abused and murdered girls in Belgium. The installation comprises five 16mm black & white film loops. Two of the loops show news shots of the houses where the victims were found. We see a black house flanked by a spruce, a white frontage that is almost hidden by the same tree, a spinney with in the background a house from which smoke rises, a bare stretch of land with a blank wall in the background. The fifth loop can be regarded as an emblem: in slow-motion we see a woman continuously put a lens in her eye and taking it out. untitled (The Belgium Affair) shows the fascination with the hidden, in perceiving, registering, hiding and revealing the way society copes with murder and violence. Van de Ven forces the viewer to take a position, also towards the medium film and its history.
Lidwien van de Ven (1963) made her name with large photographic works, often in combination with texts. Since 1995 she has concentrated on film installations. The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum has several of her works in its collection.