Alex Verhaest
Nesting - Film - 26min - 2019
présenté dans le cadre de l'exposition Panorama 21
Film
A pregnant woman ignores her sister’s pleading phone calls to visit their dying mother. She drinks and smokes heavily while she hides in a dodgy hotel. When the hotel staff seem to mirror the trauma she fled from, she decides it’s time to deal with the fact that she cannot cope with her past.
With Nesting I wanted to investigate the transitional phase into motherhood after a traumatic daughterhood. Is it possible to forgive ourselves as we struggle with all the guilt imposed on us by our mothers?
Alex Verhaest
Alex Verhaest’s work operates on the juxtaposition of painting, videogame and cinema extended. With each new film, Verhaest dives into what it means to make films in a multi-screen post-Nintendo society.
During her MFA year, Verhaest travelled to China where she discovered the Asian hacker subculture. She was invited to participate in a six-month residency at island6 Arts Center in Shanghai where she joined the former collective ‘Platform for Urban Investigations’. She then travelled to Mexico DF, Eindhoven and Salvador da Bahia where she participated in group-shows of the collective at the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico, the Van Abbe Museum and the Museo de Arte Moderna. In 2009, she decided to focus more on her own practice and to leave the collective. Her work has since been exhibited in numerous institutions (ZKM karlruhe, HKW Berlin, Bozar) and has been selected by several arts and new media festivals and competitions; i.e. the FILE electronic language festival in Sao Paolo, the New Technology Art Award in Gent, TAZ Oostende and Arts Festival Watou, and her work is featured in the Akzo Nobel Collection. She won the New Face Award at the Japan Media arts Festival. Verhaest’s work has been awarded with the prestigious 2015 Ars Electronica Golden Nica.
