Trouw — Art collective Kirac keeps searching for the boundary

The contrary art collective Kirac previously caused an uproar in the Netherlands with a film about sexual violence. Last weekend, the artists were cancelled in Belgium too, even though the film they wanted to present was about cancel culture.

Text by Joke de Wolf. Tuesday, 5 April 2022.

A few Belgians and around forty Dutch art lovers are standing on the pavement outside the exhibition space Kiosk in Ghent. They have travelled from Amsterdam to Ghent on a special bus this Saturday. Most are in their twenties, many with a university education. They share one interest: a fascination with the Dutch art collective Kirac.

Kirac stands for Keeping It Real Art Critics, loosely translated as ‘honest art critics’. Visual artist Stefan Ruitenbeek, born in 1982, and archaeologist Kate Sinha, born in 1988, have been criticising exhibitions, museums and fellow artists since 2016. They do so in films, now numbering 24 episodes, which they send online to their approximately 1,500 donors and sometimes show publicly as well. Contrary, controversial films: creative variations on reality television through which Kirac presents itself as the nagging conscience of the Dutch art world.

Kirac examines, for example, the work of celebrated artists such as Renzo Martens and Rem Koolhaas: its makers speak to them and reflect on what the art world does to celebrities. They ask questions such as: what is good art and what is bad art? And who actually gets to decide?

The Dutch visitors came to Ghent to attend the presentation of Kirac’s new film at Kiosk and an accompanying exhibition. Director Simon Delobel had invited the Dutch artists himself because he believes in them.

But a day and a half before the opening, the director was told that the board of the art academy to which Kiosk belongs would not give permission. There was no ‘safe climate’ for debate ‘because of the polarisation caused by Kirac’s presence’. Ghent’s online harassment reporting service, meldet.org, had asked sympathisers to email the academy’s board.

Artist Tarik Sadouma, born in 1979, a regular member of the Kirac crew and wearing an officer’s cap with glitter for the occasion, had already given a preview of Kirac’s position on the bus. ‘We are not going to attack the wokies,’ he said, referring to the so-called ‘woke’ culture the complainants are said to represent. ‘It is about the institutions. They should defend art, not close their doors after a few anonymous threats.’

Rape culture

Once at Kiosk, Sadouma continues. ‘If the board had left the doors open, we would have known who was against us. We worked on this for four months, and we think it is perfectly all right to disagree sometimes. That is normal and healthy in a democracy. But don’t simply close the doors.’

Last October, there were also protests in Amsterdam because Kirac was allegedly applauding rape culture. Protesters objected to the film whose premiere debate centre De Balie wanted to screen. It showed right-wing philosopher Sid Lukkassen having sex with philosophy student Jini, and he had subsequently withdrawn his consent. Right-wing demonstrators were angry about this, calling it ‘sexual abuse’, even though Lukkassen had initially participated voluntarily.

At the same time, supporters of the feminist Wonda Collective protested against Kirac in the street, because it had allegedly glorified Julian A., an artist accused by twenty women of rape and assault. At the advance screening of the previous film, Kirac had A. ride past the audience on horseback. How to deal with this cancelled person and his art was the question Kirac intended to raise through the stunt. Not everyone appreciated it.

But while De Balie saw a protest outside and an adapted screening inside, in Ghent the screening has now actually been cancelled at the last moment, along with the two-month exhibition of associated artworks, including paintings by Sadouma.

Artists in Ghent involved in the event found an alternative presentation space for the film at the last minute, in a former factory hall.

That evening, Kirac’s latest film is therefore shown there to an audience of around two hundred. Fittingly, Under a Sinking Sun concerns, among other things, artists who have lost their jobs and/or friends because of inappropriate behaviour and believe they can find a safe haven with Kirac.

While the characters Kate and Stefan adopt a sensible, rational attitude, Tarik plays an agitated man who, as a ‘gay pimp’, engages in all kinds of power games. At times, this produces extremely uncomfortable scenes.

Feminist dance training

Philosophy student Jini, who has a lucrative side job running a private porn channel, has sex with another cancelled man after Tarik brings them together. To help her become more self-assured, she receives feminist dance training from Kaouthar Darmoni.

In real life, Darmoni is the director of Atria, the institute for gender equality and women’s history, but, as it now turns out, she is also an excellent actress, hilariously explaining in a few sentences that not all sex is bad for women.

Things become very uncomfortable when Tarik assesses students at the invitation of the Ghent art academy. Tarik completely tears apart the work and personality of the timid student Chris Houben, something that must seem familiar to many former art students. Ruitenbeek had already explained on the bus that all the students appearing in the art academy section had explicitly consented to participate. Houben’s work is even on display here in the factory hall.

While Kirac’s opponents advocate a safe space in places such as the art academy to prevent abuse, Kirac argues precisely for speaking without mincing words within the academy.

Three Flemish art academy students in the audience are affected by what they have seen in the film. Elvira Mulray admits that the explicit sex scenes shocked her and brought a tear to her eye, but also made her laugh. As a result, it is a work that will stay with her for a while. Louis Peeters’ entire class opposed the screening, but he went anyway. ‘Now I know what the controversy is about. And I’m glad I saw it.’

Trouw readers who want to see Under a Sinking Sun can request a personal link by emailing Kiracfilms@gmail.com and quoting code 666.