“C’est La Vie de Nicolas Janssens”

the (refusal of) Belgian nationality as an artistic principle in urban intervention

Abstract

The essay contemplates the context of creation and execution of the urban intervention “C’est La Vie de Nicolas Janssens”, carried out in three Belgian cities in April 2018, when it was performed by the artist-researcher, author of this writing, for 15 consecutive days. The action, which involved elements normally considered within the spectrum of artivism, anti-art, relational art and durational performance, consisted in the construction of a fictitious identity based on the conceptions of what a typical Belgian would be, collected in loco interviews with native Belgians and their closest acquaintances. The resulting essay maps historical and cultural elements that influenced the configuration of the action. For this, it dialogues with studies in the areas of arts (especially performance, dance and theater), philosophy, geography, linguistics, law, history and sociology. The methodology used is autoethnography and the resulting essay seeks a multiplatform formal construction, in which the reading experience reverberates the singularity of the performative event.