Founded in 1989 in Brussels, ⓐⓡⓖⓞⓢ is an institution and resource for the presentation, production, and study of critical audiovisual arts, as well as for its distribution, conservation and restoration.

𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓸𝓼 considers the audiovisual as a primary means of looking at and understanding the world in more open and integrated ways. Supporting a multiplicity of voices in society, it fosters dialogue with a broad range of institutional and non-institutional partners, both in Brussels and beyond, and seeks new ways to engage diverse audiences

Aay Liparoto - Small Acts of Violence

C0N10UR and 𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚘𝚜 present Small Acts of Violence. You’re invited to walk through a low landscape of broken ceramics vases, moldy collages and brick walls. Explore your way to the fabric cocoon, and experience the artist Aay Liparoto’s immersive cinematic Virtual Reality work at the heart of this exhibition.

Do you consent to participate in this loving experience? Do you choose to stay or will you leave? In this exhibition, you cannot just watch passively. You choose the family situations you gaze on, or turn away from. Small Acts of Violence makes you physically feel how boundaries constantly shift between safe and unsafe, between love and violence. It’s surreal, recognizable, and elusive at the same time.

You enter a tender, volatile universe. Stories of intimate violence are not shunned; instead motivations are explored and unpacked. The true personal experiences and collected testimonies encourage you to consider your own behaviors and assert your own boundaries. The path through this sensuous and enticing world, surrounded by soft fabrics and sharp edges, leads you to reflect on how you love.

.

Trevor Mathison - From Signal To Decay: Volume 4

ａｒｇｏｓ presents From Signal To Decay: Volume 4, British composer and audiovisual artist Trevor Mathison’s first solo-exhibition in Belgium. Mathison is a founding member of the legendary multimedia arts initiative Black Audio Film Collective, for which he is pivotal in establishing a sonic language that incorporates elements of dub, musique concrète, and industrial music. Alongside these activities, he also produced a vibrant body of work as an individual artist.

Mathison presents a unique constellation of mostly new works in a variety of media. In the exhibition, he focuses on the ways in which sound travels through space and consecutively disintegrates, while adding a variety of site-specific socio-political layers to this process.

During a visit earlier this year, Mathison embarked on a sonic investigation of the ａｒｇｏｓ building, producing multiple recordings of its premises as well as of its surrounding neighbourhood. As a former banana ripening warehouse built in the 1960s, the original function of the ａｒｇｏｓ building is intricately entwined with the global trade and distribution of this produce. Up until the early 20th century, this trade was predominantly situated in the neighbourhood surrounding ａｒｇｏｓ, where bananas were imported from Congo. Echoes of this activity persist across Brussels’ urban fabric, through visual references on buildings for example. Gradually, however, the banana trade routes shifted towards Latin America. Remarkably, it is only then that the ａｒｇｏｓ building was established as a warehouse housing these fruits.