Resistance Art: documentary on far-right in the arts

More and more young people in Europe are turning to identitarian and xenophobic parties. How do young artists thematize this evolution? Watch the exclusive documentary Resistance Art by Sarah Baur. Two promising artists reflect on the rise of far-right.

In 2021, Sarah Baur presented the documentary CLMT SHIFT ART on this website, in which artists Benjamin Verdonck and Jérôme Bel testified about the role of ecology in their artistic practice. Resistance Art is the second episode of a trilogy. This time, Baur questions two young artists whose work thematises the rise of the far-right: theatre director Paola Pisciottano and visual artist and director Alexander Deprez.

Italian Pisciottano created in Brussels her debut performance EXTREME/MALECANE in 2021, constructed from interviews, documentary material and a striking stage performance. Before that, she spent four years investigating why European youth today so eagerly connect with identitarian, populist and often xenophobic ideas.

Alexander Deprez mainly worked as a photographer, but since 2019 he also creates film and theatre. In 2020, for example, he became involved with Zuidpark, the political artist collective behind the satirical theatre trip The Importance of Being Flemish. Following his debut film Gabriel Descending (2019), he is working on a second production, Edelweiss Pirates, with the rise of the extreme right as its subject.

In Resistance Art, Baur questions two artists about a struggle that affects them personally: nuanced, occasionally provocative and from surprising points of view.