The Consolation of Water Lilies
28-31.07.2022
What does it mean for bodies of water to hold other bodies of water? Should this holding and gestating be considered forms of labor? In what ways can the experience of maternity be lived today? The workshop explores the environmental significance of motherhood and the political ramifications of gestation. Through the reading of relevant texts, the screening of video works by Eva Giolo, Eva L’Hoest, and Mélanie Peduzzi, the participants will be invited to reflect upon contemporary questions about pregnancy and caregiving, and share their own experiences. In the following days, the remnants of the workshop will be displayed together with the three aforementioned films.
“Océan” by Mélanie Peduzzi, 15”, 2022
“Women with each other share or forget to share. Every birth is different. I will show you mine. Making this video object was essential for me. On the one hand, to move forward, but also to remember. And most importantly to share a story of this experience that often leaves women with amnesia.” – Mélanie Peduzzi about her work
Mélanie Peduzzi (Brittany, 1989) is a Belgian artist, graduated from ENSAV La Cambre in 2013, who works between writing, performance and photography. She develops work protocols that question imposed norms and the power of representation in contemporary, unequal society through actions and images based mainly on her own body. Peduzzi has co-created Les Habitant.e.s des images, an active platform between art, social and politics.
“The Inmost Cell” by Eva L’Hoest with music by John Also Bennett, 11”, 2020
In L’Hoest’s CGI video technologies, nature, and human memory melt into each other and into water. Recollecting the stories and myths about the Latvian river Daugava and shaping them into submarine architectures leads the viewer to recognize rivers as carriers of narrations and experiences.
Eva L’Hoest (Liège, 1991) produces films and installations about our ancestral connection with water and the human collective memory. L’Hoest graduated from the Master approfondi ULG-ESAVL, Liège (Belgium) in 2015, and her work was recently been shown at Centre d’Art Contemporain de Meymac (France) and at the Rivus, Biennale of Sydney (Australia).
“The Demands of Ordinary Devotion” by Eva Giolo, 12’06″, 2022
Artisans, mothers, and machines. Labor, exercise, and routine. They alternate, occasionally falling out of sync or revealing unexpected resemblances on a floating tempo. The gestures performed in very different occupations overlap, linking the participants and cutting through space and time. In all of this doing, when does making become creating?
Eva Giolo’s (Brussels, 1991) is an audio-visual artist working in film, video, and installation. Her work places particular focus on the female experience, employing experimental and documentary strategies to explore themes of intimacy, permanence and memory, along with the analysis of language and semiotics. Her work has been exhibited at Sadie Coles HQ, WIELS, MAXXI, GEM, M HKA, Kunsthalle Wien and major film festivals like Rotterdam, FIDMarseille and Cinéma du Réel. She is a founding member of the production and distribution platform elephy.
Curated by Valentina Bianchi and Natalia Barczyńska
Pictures by Van den Bussche-Vanden Bossche
Scenography by Minne De Meyer Engelbeen
