ça va bien, mais ça va mal

by Merzedes Sturm-Lie

At Komplot - Chateau Nour, Brussels (BE), 2019. Solo

ça va bien, mais ça va mal is the title of Merzedes Sturm-Lie's exhibition and is based on the song 'Tout vas très bien, Madame la Marquise', which has been reinterpreted by our friends from the Projet de Cohésion Sociale Albert (PCS). At the initiative of José Garcia, this classic populist song was turned into a militant song and performed by a group of inhabitants and social workers just in time for the recent elections in Belgium. All this took place in an atmosphere of good spirits and mockery during the weekly Friday lunches at PCS.
Merzedes Sturm-Lie, an artist-in-residence at Komplot, offered her services by documenting the singing sessions of this protest song tinged with black humor. For the opening on November 15, she has reinterpreted the song through a performance. The exhibition contextualizes the history of this song by tracing it back to the 12th century. The video, the posters and the performance will be presented alongside paintings inspired by the artistic avant-garde's tradition of social and political engagement. The cabaret atmosphere of the exhibition also reminds us that these great historical movements originated from spaces of informal sociability.
Text by curator Sonia Dermience, 2019