As part of artist Jef Geys' exhibition You don't see what you think you see, WIELS is presenting three films by the independent filmmaker Inge Godelaine, who worked with artist Jef Geys for 28 years. The film Villa Wintermans will be screened on 5 May about Jef Geys' project for the 1991 São Paulo Biennale, preceded by an introduction by Inge Godelaine.
Free with exhibition ticket
Portugese spoken with English subtitles
18 years after Jef Geys's architectural intervention Villa Wintermans for the São Paulo Biennale in 1991, Inge Godelaine has returned to the Brazilian metropolis.
Jef Geys' project for the São Paulo Biennale is one of the most complex public projects he has ever undertaken, in an attempt to establish visual links between art and society. For this project, Geys built a wooden structure - 65% of its original size - from of the Flemish modernist villa of cigar manufacturer Balen Wintermans, in the middle of the favelas of the Brazilian city. An infrastructure that he made available to local residents with the aim of setting up a school there. In the hustle and bustle of the Biennial, this intervention went almost unnoticed, and when Godelaine travelled to São Paulo in 2006 in search of the remains of the villa, it turned out that there was nothing left of it, apart from a few vague local souvenirs.
Concept and realisation: Inge Godelaine
Duration: 50 minutes
2006
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Inge Godelaine (BE) is an independent filmmaker who worked with artist Jef Geys for 28 years. She assisted Geys in building his exhibitions and projects. She also made a number of reportages and documentaries about the artist. Besides artist portraits or narrative films about art, she also uses other media and disciplines such as creating figurative paintings, drawings and photography. The visual language she uses is sometimes cryptic, ironic or humorous.