Bozar pumps up the volume with 'Love Is Louder'

For Love Is Louder, Bozar selected works about love by eighty Belgian and international artists, all created between the Summer of Love in 1967 and now. These works are not just about romantic love, they also challenge the dominance of the traditional couple or nuclear family, and can have political impact. Love is louder. But louder than what? Four participating artists formulate a passionate answer.

'Love is far greater than romantic love. It's also about friends, family, or even people you don't know'
Joëlle Dubois (1990), Ghent-based painter

“Love is louder than fear. To me, fear – just as hate, sadness, and anger related to fear and insecurity – are pretty much the opposite of love. Fear prevents you from moving, and connection is not possible if you cannot move. Connecting, in turn, is what love does for me. I'm talking about a connection with the other that is far greater than love in a romantic relationship. It's also about friends, family, or even people you don't know. In their diversity, human beings are so beautiful and interesting.”

“I have always been very fascinated by children who looked different or approached things differently, even as a child. Humanity in all its facets, with its different looks, insides, colours, and cultures remains an important source of inspiration for me. For some, those differences are a source of fear, but I am someone who likes to challenge and question my fears. Love means gently questioning yourself and daring to look at your dark sides in order to become a better person.”

“In my works in the exhibition, smartphones and social media feature prominently among real naked bodies. Because I too – as a woman, as a person, and as an artist – am sensitive to the insecurities that social media brings. But at the same time, it was, and it still is, a source of inspiration. We always want to show our best side and only the positive. But we also need to love the less attractive parts of ourselves. Be kind to ourselves.”

“I really needed to get this unhealthy relationship with social media off my chest. Preferably with humour and with room for the viewer's interpretation. The naked figures in my work are about self-love, but they also help break the taboo around female sexuality, and are about intimacy and vulnerability. For me, nudity is the purest form of being.”

Joëlle Dubois is showing three paintings from her colourful oeuvre, in which smartphone and social media wriggle themselves in between free-flowing naked bodies.

'Love is about making someone else happy, realising the joy of having someone in your life'
Lara Gasparotto (1989), Liège-based photographer

“I'm improvising here but love is stronger than the sacrifices we have to make for it. For example, the love for a child is stronger than anything we do for that child. The same applies to friendship. My photos in the exhibition belong to the section on friendship, which plays an important role in my life. The two photos I have selected each show a group of friends. One (Laissez les enfants libres) during the COVID-19 pandemic on a slag heap in Liège. The other (Nous endormis) years ago on the shores of a lake. They show young people for whom everything is still possible, during one of those interludes in life that at the time you don't realise could well be one of the happiest. The photos are ambiguous because you could also think the people portraited are lovers. In my opinion, friendship does not get the place and attention in society it deserves, compared to romantic love.”

“I am no expert, but the patriarchal society and Catholicism have long compartmentalised people and spread an exclusive idea of love. Women serving men, the family coming first... We need to improve the status of friendship. Friendship makes you grow and overcome obstacles. Friendship is a force of light. It is that family of friends that in part has made me the photographer that I am. Love is about making someone else happy, realising the joy of having someone in your life, and being grateful that there are people who love us. Enjoying the sense of safety and security that that offers.”

“Love for me is also the feeling of being happy that someone or something exists. I photograph that which I love. People, but nature too. I think that that is something that is apparent in my photographs. And that I wouldn't be able to take these photos otherwise.”

At Bozar, Lara Gasparotto will show two photographs in which friendship looks suspiciously like love.

'Our quest for love is stronger than the commercial objectives
of the apps'
Ariane Loze (1988), Brussels-based videographer

“The first thought that comes to mind is: love is louder than algorithms. The dating profiles I interpret cover the whole range from the innocent teenager to the rogue grazer trying to abuse loners on dating apps. But there is also a more analytical character, based on specialists such as a personal data analyst I spoke to, and a love coach who helps people who aren't very good at self-marketing create their dating profiles. The hopes of people looking for a sweetheart are confronted with the limitations inherent in algorithms devised by computer science engineers, with their own vision of love and attraction. A profile on these apps is given a rating and someone with '980' is more likely to be matched with a '975' than with a '710'. Dating apps reflect users' average reactions too. If they find a certain characteristic unattractive, the rating of everyone with that characteristic will be lower.”

“For example, a woman in her 50s who has studied is considered less attractive. Because the creators of dating apps are young American computer scientists, but also because users prefer to meet women younger than 40. The result, of course, is that users start pretending to be different from what they are. Dating apps also collect data from the user as a consumer. That too has little to do with love. Love as a cover for data-brokers. On top of that, our human brain is not yet adapted to the speed and harshness with which the algorithm presents profile after profile. Being ghosted can hurt. It is as if we are still too old-fashioned to follow the speed of the machine. It is fascinating and frightening that even specialists no longer always know exactly how those algorithms evolve and function. And yet: love is louder. Our quest for love is stronger than the commercial objectives of the apps.”

In her 2022 video Our Cold Love, Ariane Loze, in her chameleonic manner, portrays numerous characters who bend to the profiles they think they can use to score love on a dating app.

'Love is stronger than the pigeonholes of gender, orientation, or social class'
Kasper Bosmans (1990), Brussels-based visual artist

“Love is stronger than the pigeonholes of gender, orientation, or social class. I made two murals about unorthodox love, of two places that are important to me. One place is Prague's Belvedere, where Emperor Rudolf II imprisoned himself having been dethroned by his radical Catholic brother. As a queer person, he received the lovers and mistresses in that beautiful building overlooking the city and made love to them while literally looking at the stars. In other words, a romantic and historical place, but also a place that is about 'looking'. In my search for a second place where love is not disturbed by issues of gender and orientation – but for people who are less privileged – I ended up with the cherry orchards, such as in Schaarbeek/Schaerbeek, where fairs and harvest festivals used to be held and which were also associated with the first loves of the working class who disappeared into the bushes to enjoy love with whoever.”

“Those two places show an alternative history of desire. They hang opposite each other just in front of the entrance to the exhibition, in the part of Bozar open to everyone, and form a passage where you can also sit down for a while. As if you are in an outdoor space, just before entering the exhibition space. Apart from love, watching, imagination, and liberation from all sorts of scary norms, time also plays an important role. Because when you fall in love with someone, somehow you are given more time. Love can widen your time, just as when you read a book that allows you to 'experience' a whole new extra life. It also allows you to look back. Back to that special point when you were together and everything felt so and so. So love is also stronger than time. And something similar applies to art.”

Kasper Bosmans made new work for Love Is Louder. He will present two large murals intended to get visitors in the mood before they enter the exhibition.