LKN Confidential
video


ZF: – When did you open?
THE BARBER: In 1957.ZF: – Have you ever wanted to be a baker?
BAKER CASHIER: – I should have been a man. Or marry a baker. Bakery is a job for couples.ZF: – Can we film the shop?
MILITARY SHOP OWNER: – It’s just an organized disorder.
ZF: – What do you sell?
MILITARY SHOP OWNER: – Collectible dust.

ZF: – Your favourit product?
GROCER: Sang du dragon.

PASSER-BY: When can we see this film on TV?
ZF- It will never be on TV, you’ll see it right there, on the other side of the street.
THE BAKER CASHIER: – I open at 5.30 in the morning. I open and you’ll be already filming, right?

ZF: – Film?
MILITARY SHOP OWNER: La Grande Illusion (The grand illusion)
ZF: – Book?
MILITARY SHOP OWNER: La vie etrange des objets

GIRL – What are you doing, a reportage?
ZF – It’s a film.
BOY What are you filming, the prostitutes?
ZF – We’re in a laundry!
BOY (OR GIRL) – The day you film the prostitutes I won’t be around, ok?

BARTENANT – I like Cuba.
ZF- is this the reason why you called your bar El Che?
BT – It’s a wonderful country. Nice weather, nice seaside. Nice people as well.

THE BARBER – Do you know the freemasons?
ZF- No.
THE BARBER -They have their Temple on the opposite side of the street.
ZF- What do they do there?
THE BARBER -They discuss. They bought the building aside as well.
ZF- But do you know them?
THE BARBER -No.

A MASON – Most of Brussels mayors were freemasons. Unless three of them.
ZF- What is the Freemasonry?
A MASON – A method to access knowledge.

A CUSTOMER OF SALON WASH – Are you lesbians?
ZF – why?
A.C.O.T.S.W – because you are always together

ZF – What would you like that your children do?
THE HOUSEWARES SHOP – I don’t have children. I would prefer they do something else. Something better.
ZF – What?
THE HOUSEWARES SHOP – Lawyer, broker, politician.

ZF: – What are you writing?
THE BAR TENDER: A letter
ZF: – To whom?
THE BAR TENDER: A friend in jail. I write half in French, half in Bargoensch.
ZF: – What is it?
THE BAR TENDER: The secret language of hoodlums of Marolles. Now no one remembers it.
ZF: – You do?
THE BAR TENDER: I am one of the last ones.

PIMP: – Are you working here?
ZF: – Yes. I mean, no, not here…

CLIENT OF THE BAR: In 78 years I never worked a single day.
ZF: Would did you do?
C.O.T.B: Poker.
ZF: Playing cards all day long?
C.O.T.B: I played with the gratest artists. Omar Sharif, and the best theater stars… First I won their cachet and then I left them under the table. I am gifted.

DVD SHOP TENANT: Do you wanna see beyond the backdoor?
ZF: Oh… wow!

ZF – Can we film the shop?
DVD SHOP TENANT: No, we are renovating and it’s all messed up.
ZF – We like all that mess.
DVD SHOP TENANT: Are you kidding?

ZF: – What is that?
ARCHITECT: – The Orangerie. You can also call it window, glass house, greenhouse, gazebo, veranda. Every young architect starts by building up a veranda.

ZF – Do you ever think to how this place would be without you?
SHOP TENANT: What do you mean, after death? The World Without Me?
ZF – This is the Harry Potter’s film… Did you see Lovely Bones as well?
SHOP TENANT: After death I will not think any more. The other people will think at my place. Will you think about me?

ZF: – Are you a secret society?
A FREEMASON: – We’re a discrete society.
ZF:- Classified?
A FREEMASON: – Confidential

Ritratto di un quartiere di Bruxelles visto da dentro le vetrine di negozi e pubblici esercizi, LKN Confidential è girato in una singola e apparentemente normalissima strada: rue de Laeken/Lakensestraat. La decadenza commerciale della strada, finita la belle époque degli anni Sessanta, si è assestata in un “tempo lento” in cui convivono botteghe tramandate da generazioni, famiglie di panettieri e barbieri che abitano nel retrobottega, prostitute e papponi, bar di habitué, spacciatori, negozi per collezionisti, il teatro fiammingo e il museo della massoneria. Il film entra ed esce da questi luoghi pubblici di proprietà privata chiedendosi cosa si vede da dietro il bancone, cosa succederà dopo, cosa resta del lavoro e della vita stessa.

Portrait of an area of Brussels seen from inside the windows of shops and businesses, LKN Confidential was shot on a single and apparently ordinary street, Rue de Laeken/Lakensestraat. The commercial decadence of the street, once the belle époque of the 1960s had run its course, has since settled into a sort of lethargic cohabitation of workshops handed down over the generations, families of bakers and barbers who live behind their shops, prostitutes and pimps, dive bars, drug dealers, shops for collectors, the Flemish theater and the Masonic museum. The film enters and exits these privately-owned public spaces, wondering how the world looks from behind the counter, what will happen next, what remains of work and indeed of life itself.

documentary film
format MiniDV on file 1024×567 pixel (Quicktime mov), audio stereo, 40’
concept ZimmerFrei
production Kunstenfestivaldes arts, Mokum, BNA/BBOT
direction Anna Rispoli e and Anna de Manincor
interviews Anna Rispoli
photography and editing Anna de Manincor
sound design Massimo Carozzi
boom operator Chiara Balsamo
assistant editor Philippe Chatelain

watch the film on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/zimmerfrei/lknconfidential

solo exhibition

ZimmerFrei. LKN Confidential
May 8th-29th 2010
Bruxelles nous appartien/Brussel behoort ons toe

October 5th – November 15th 2010
ZimmerFrei. Tomorrow is the question
Monitor gallery, Rome

May 27th – August 28th 2011
Campo Largo
MAMbo Museum – Bologna

screenings

March 1 2011
NABA, Milan
o

Anno Solare
Santarcangelo di Romagna
6 febbraio 2012

Tropici, Angelo Mai, Roma
7 giugno 2013