Lieven De Boeck (b. 1971) is a conceptual Belgian artist who lives and works in Brussels. His work inhabits territories where the themes of borders, decolonization, artist-audience relationship and representation of identity are central.

De Boeck’s work is not constrained by a singular medium, varying and shifting from sculptures and installations to performances and video. Precisely this versatility grants a deeply engaging experience with his work. What he proposes for HORST is no exception. During the Horst Arts & Music festival De Boeck will bring his travelling performance entitled The Parade, What’s going on?, previously performed at Sarasota Art Museum & Untitled Art Fair, Miami. With this intervention, the artist and his team invite the local public to participate via the use of Parangolés which are cape-like art objects originally produced by Hélio Oiticica (1937 - 1980) a Brazilian visual and performance artist as well as a theorist, best known for his conceptual and environmental art between 1964 and 1979. While Oticica’s Parangoles were paying tribute to the Brazilian Favelas, Lieven’s work honours Oiticica in the shape of an artistic exhumation.
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During the three day festival, Lieven De Boeck will re-activate about ten costumes together with volunteers and the festival audience. The Parade is a performance, a happening and a feast celebrating mixed gender and queer identity, where participating and experiencing art through queerness is central. The performance is set up as an animated situation, a sudden dynamic confusion and lively agitation among people in a public space. Lieven describes ‘the costumes as inhabited paintings, pieces of clothing representing different queer and gender identities designed to be worn in a type of ritual dance with the intention to denounce.’ Through The Parade the artists along the participants will pay tribute to Brazilian artists Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark while exploring art as an interactive experience that can only happen through personal activation.

Additional materials were sourced from local and sustainable designer brand Infantium Victoria. The textiles are to be used as complimentary for the existing costumes as well as for new costumes specifically made for HORST in collaboration with BIUK collective. The participants at these endeavours during the festival are people from the HORST’S community, students and Atelier participants.

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The participants include: Annalise Nwamaka Delbouille, Marie Annaert, Janne Reekmans (BIUK), Tatiana Tempels (BIUK), Merlijn Cambre (BIUK), Emma Revest, Zarina Gibadulina, Toan Daubin, Maj-Britt Verheijen Van Dyck, Aliyyah Fay. After HORST, the performance will travel to Botanique, Brussels. 

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