Window to the World: Remember Belgian Congo
1978
Installation
Materials: sound file on hard disk drive
Collection: Collectie M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. UFO2013_20).
The works of Vito Acconci are always politically and socially charged. Through the audio installation Window to the World (Remember the Belgian Congo), Acconci expressed his criticism towards the colonial regime of Belgium. Several speakers attached to long cables broadcast a collage-like soundscape, in which documentary fragments about Belgian Congo, gunshots, circus music and Acconci's voice alternate and overlap one another. The work was first exhibited at the International Cultural Center in 1978, in the former royal palace on the Meir in Antwerp. Almost 30 years later, the work once again was part of an exhibition, this time during "Dear ICC" at M HKA. Flor Bex and Lieve Dedeyne kindly donated the correspondence with Acconci to M HKA, in which he describes the work in detail, accompanied by original design sketches.