CAMPO: An Anthology of Optimism

Pieter De Buysser and Jacob Wren wrote a letter that began, “An Anthology of Optimism is a pre-emptive celebration of a critical optimism we tentatively hope will increase in the twenty-first century.” They sent the letter to writers, artists, thinkers, scientists, politicians and businesspeople all over the world, asking for a response, a contribution. This could be anything: a photograph, a piece of music, an object, a short text, a drawing or painting, a film or video, or something else entirely.

Jacob Wren is a writer and maker of eccentric performances. His books include: Unrehearsed Beauty, Families are Formed through Copulation and Revenge Fantasies of the Politically Dispossessed. As co-artistic director of Montreal-based interdisciplinary group PME-ART he has co-created: En français comme en anglais, it’s easy to criticize, Unrehearsed Beauty / Le génie des autres, La famille se crée en copulant and the ongoing HOSPITALITÉ / HOSPITALITY series. He frequently writes about contemporary art. He first met Belgian writer, philosopher and theatre-maker Pieter De Buysser in 2000 in CAMPO nieuwpoort, Ghent (B). They felt a great affinity with each other and started an intensive correspondence resulting in An Anthology of Optimism.
The performance is in English with Czech subtitles.