The project Benevolence by Belgian artist Karel De Cock enters our moving image space as the next solo exhibition. This expressive audiovisual work explores gender dynamics and relationship patterns in classic Hollywood cinema.

In his video collage, the artist organically interweaves and layers shots from hundreds of films from the 1940s and 1950s, letting them flicker over one another in a rhythmic, almost epileptic pulse, creating a hypnotic visual dance. The entire composition ecstatically progresses according to the framework of a traditional love story: starting with a seemingly innocent chase, it moves into dramatic tension or coercion, and ultimately culminates in a pompous display of overwhelming love and absolute submission.

Through this refined cinematic choreography, the artist deconstructs traditional Hollywood narratives, revealing the hidden mechanics of enduring conventions that have shaped our perception of reality for generations. In doing so, Karel De Cock not only highlights the norms of that era but also holds up a mirror to contemporary pop culture, where these romantic clichés endure in various forms today.

Karel De Cock (*1982) is a Belgian multimedia artist and filmmaker. His photographic and audiovisual projects have been presented in prestigious galleries and museums, including the Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.