In July 2021, GHOST traveled with Voo?uit to the Santarcangelo theater festival in Italy. We spent a week in Mutonia, a mini-free state born of the anarchic, iconoclastic and experimental spirit of the travelers and cyberpunks who founded it as a temporary escape from the reign of Margaret Thatcher, among others.
Thanks to collected scrap and self-transformed vehicles, Mutonia resembles the post-apocalyptic landscape of Mad Max, the 1979 cult film launched by a young Mel Gibson.
On site, the accompanying artists played two sold-out shows, with performances by, among others, STAKE, ANKKH, Mathijs Steels (SHHT), Lotta Mächs and Reisac. ft. Jiheavy.
Director of photography Jeroen De Wilde and documentary maker Julie Daems captured the journey and shows. The result of this ‘Mad Max’ inspired Italian-Belgian crossover can be seen on Friday 22 October at Vooruit during VIDEODROOM.
GHOST: The ‘Mad Max’ Edition will take place in the Theaterzaal with a show at 7:30 PM and 10 PM. Don’t let yourself be led astray during this mix of live performances and unique video material.
Watch the video clip we shot in Mutonia for ‘Deadlock Eyes’.
STAKE
Over a decade ago, four youngsters-barely 12 years old and on the verge of growing their first pubic hair -started making music in a shabby rehearsal room, somewhere in Flanders’ Fields. The music was LOUD, and hard, uncompromising, tantalizing.
STAKE produces hyper atmospheric grunge core, or perhaps Post-Metal-oriented melodic Sludge. You name it…
Together with these four grunge core post-metalheads we traveled to Italy where Mutonia formed the backdrop for a video clip directed and filmed by DOP Jeroen De Wilde.
Julie Daems (Regie) & Zaur Kourazov (DOP): ‘Carol’s Channel’
In this quirky behind the scenes we meet Carol, a woman who lives in Mutonia. A murderous ghost emerges from the old colour television that she operates by hand. We find ourselves in a confusing trip between the different TV channels that casts a new light and also a darkness on the intentions of Stefan Bracke and his companions. The night shows a looming moon and to the heavy chords of a false piano and deep drone beats, a paranormal dog explores the apocalyptic village. Will everyone survive this night?
Julie Daems is a young filmmaker who explores the boundary between documentary and fiction and plays on it in an imaginative way. She graduated from KASK with the short film L’Indigotier (2020). Together with her regular cameraman and filmmaker Zaur Kourazov (Time Is, 2019), they travelled to make a playful audio-visual document of the musical spectacle of Ghost in Santarcangelo.
This documentary was made possible in part by Gouvernement.
Jeroen De Wilde: Stake Video Clip
Director/DOP Jeroen De Wilde was inspired by the mini-free state of Mutonia for the creation of this STAKE music video. The quirky hometown of collected scrap and self-transformed vehicles provides the ideal backdrop for the clip starring Carol, who sets out in a post-apocalyptic (and Mad Max-inspired) world in search of a Fusion Cell to get life back on track.
Reisac. ft. Jiheavy
This industrial collaboration between Joris Casier (STAKE) and Stefan Bracke brings an ode to New Beat.
Mathijs Steels (Shht)
You can safely call the keyboardist of, among others, SHHT and Soapstarter a virtuoso. During our GHOST: The Mad Max edition, he takes on the role of a dark pianist who has fallen into disrepair.
Lotta Mächs
Lotta likes to float around in a room full of vhs tapes, old-school video mixers and crappy tv-monitors. searching for ultimate moments that give her the thrill she is looking for in this analogue chaos. it can result in live visuals or video-collages, the process may or may not be extended by immortalizing her video stills in warm, meaningful painted abstraction.
Lotta also stars as protagonist Carol in the STAKE clip by Jeroen De Wilde.
ANKKH
Ankkh is an Italian visual artists duo, made up of Kristofer and Ektor, performers and DJ’s. They form a strong artistic identity inspired by different subcultures such as cyberpunk and hyper pop. They combine their art with sound and transformations, especially those related to the Queer culture of which hey are a part. Their art is an expression between the digital and the spiritual dimension.
Afterwards ANKKH will be performing a DJ set at the Vooruit café.
Mutonia & The Mutoids
Either way you look at it, Mutonia is the place it’s all about. Located near the Italian town of Santarcangelo Di Romagna, it can be described as a peculiar “village within a village”, a temporary city that has been transformed over time in response to the larger urban, territorial and social context. Mutonia was born from the anarchic, iconoclastic and experimental spirit of the travellers and cyberpunks.
Unfortunately, this quirky hometown, made up of collected scrap metal and self-transformed vehicles, is in danger of extinction. Regulations fall short to give the people who live here a legal leg to stand on. Several years ago, a council decision asked the residents of Mutonia to dismantle and restore their site to the state it was 25 years ago. Since then, the Mutoids have been doing everything they can to defend themselves and keep their hometown, their motherland.
GHOST got the honour to stay in Mutonia for a week and work with the Mutoids on the two (sold out) shows. This production was only possible thanks to their fantastic scenery and the unwavering help of all the Mutoids. An extra big thank you to Nikki & Lyle, for looking after us so well. Thank you for letting us be inspired by this place and your enthusiasm.
GHOST: The Mad Max edition is in collaboration with Vooruit and Gouvernement and was made possible in part by AMPLO and Sabam For Culture.