Robin Vanbesien (Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp)

ABSTRACT

People forced into necropolitical mobility who die at Europe’s external borders often experience a “double death”: first physical, then social, as their identities and stories are lost. This ongoing erasure — reinforced by denial and lack of accountability by European authorities — prolongs violence and leaves families and communities in unresolved grief, to which grassroots grief activism responds through practices that serve both as commemoration and as protest. 

As I explored in my artistic doctoral research Ciné Place-Making—building on Third Cinema—cinema can function as a space to rehearse the collective imagination and place-making of grassroots activism. I extend this inquiry in a feature-length non-fiction film (in development) set along the Drina river (Serbia–Bosnia and Herzegovina border), where three protagonists encounter the spirits of drowned refugees, examining how mourning, strike and protest can restore dignity and connect past and present violence. The central question is: what film methodologies and cinematic languages can sustain the rehearsal of this posthumous struggle and transmission?

BIO

Robin Vanbesien is a Brussels-based artist, filmmaker, researcher, and educator exploring cinema as a tool for collective imagination and place-making. His work engages with social and political struggles, often in collaboration with self-organized initiatives. He holds a PhD in the arts (2024) and teaches at Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp. His feature film hold on to her(2024) premiered at Berlinale.

The session will be held in-person on April 15, 2026, at 15:00 WEST in room SD of NOVA FCSH (Colégio Almada Negreiros)