exhibitions ︎
Salad Days #4
Salad Days refers to the days full of innocence and fun of our youth. It can also refer to the peak of one's ability. The term comes from Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, first act, scene 5, where Cleopatra says: ‘My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!’
Design Museum Ghent once again presents graduation projects by students from KASK & Conservatory and LUCA School of Arts Ghent. In DING Vitrine, you will discover a magically strange mix of a falling astronaut, a queer kinship cooking video, an emotional AI analysis of objects, a braided kanekalon curtain, a leporello with (un)fallen women, pixelated memories of Afghan refugees, a steel lamp inspired by Venetian sandwiches and an organically changing felt carpet.
Photography credits go to Anthony De Meyere
MAP#158 presents loose ends: meeting, meandering, wandering
Duo exhibition with Abel Hartooni
In ‘loose ends: meeting, meandering, wandering’, artists Abel Hartooni and Natalija Gucheva delve into questions about the aspects of artistic creation and its connection to life’s constant flux. Here, the glass corridor becomes a conversation of media such as paintings, ceramics and video, that unfolds fluid narratives.
Accompanying these visual artworks is a conjoint video work set in an imaginary landscape. In a non-linear narrative, the protagonists recall (inter)personal memories in order to initiate a dialogue. These memories intertwine with sensory experiences, evoking a sense of nostalgia and prompting the audience to reflect on life's transient nature.
‘Loose ends: meeting, meandering, wandering’ invites the audience to navigate the tensions between process and outcome, personal and collective memory, and other hybrids. Embracing the twists and turns of artistic exploration, Abel and Natalija challenge conventional notions of identity formation and meaning transformation, unraveling the complexity of existence and celebrating the fluidity of life's interconnectedness.
Text by Martina Latucca
Photography credits go to Isaac Ponseele
room to bloom
Collaborative performance with Benjamin Schoones
Soft corners slow down time within the world's rapid speed. Living in passing, tensioned by knotting the curtain cords, rubbing moving fibers on an overfolding surface. Collagen and found eggshells press into a vessel that carries somatic liquid morphed into that which keeps us from sponge-free riders.
This world takes place both literally and conceptually through a co-created poem. Two entities explore the complexity of one's system, capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts. Through self-made instruments, field recordings, and performing fragmented poetry, we explore this emerging tension and open possibilities for new material kinships.
Photography credits go to Lot Scholten
To Own Your Own Joy
A mysterious white figure stares into a mirror. Sharp white fangs, clinging around a poem. A tail—reminiscent of that of a horse—wagging slowly, as they delicately step throughout the space.
In the performance ‘To Own Your Joy’, Natalija Gucheva recites a self-written poem, accompanied by the sound of Benjamin Schoones. In an altered—deeply harmonised—voice their words sharply fill the room:
“As the oyster opens
Soft liquid oozes and drips on your legs
Coding different systems of pleasure”
In their writing, Natalija found inspiration in Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. The Victorian poem explores themes of temptation and sisterhood. The relationship between its two main characters is interpreted as same-sex desire and becomes fertile soil for their own expression to spring from. They expand upon this, voicing their personal truth on gender and sexuality, and the freedom entailed within. Being confronted with the pressure to conform to heteronormative societal norms is a daily practice for queer individuals, to which the artist finds an escape, even if it is temporary. Weaving together garments—by Alexis Gerlach and Aidan Abnet—Natalija searches for identity. A tail, claws, horns. Animalistic elements in their costume can be perceived as a symbol of the constant mutation and code-switching that queer individuals go through. Yet at the same time, they might resemble the monstrosity that society perceives them as. However, as powerfully demonstrated in the performance, these can also be claimed and used as a means to voice anger. To fight back:
“To claw out of our monstrous bodies
Burn the cocoon and lick the ashes
Spit in the face of terror
As a final lullaby”
In a similar notion to the original poem by Rossetti, the norms of the venue become subverted. Natalija’s personal truth on gender and sexuality momentarily intruded the space, as a loud scream unleashes:
“I OWN MY OWN JOY”
Text by Sjoerd Beijers
Music Production
Benjamin Schoones
Costume Design
Alexis Gerlach & Aidan Abnet
Photography credits go to Johan Poezevara
Transcendental Sympathy / Tales of the soil
We ground ourselves in a new cloak of light. The sound of the soil carries us to new discoveries. We exist together in a land of pulsating rhythm, where many tales form, only to show what we have already known. Visceral and abundant, we listen to our bodies as we listen to nature. Guided by our zeitgeist, we embrace time in its true mystical essence.
How do we listen? How do we experience and connect? How do we form bonds with our communities and our spiritual essence? ‘Transcendental Sympathy’ becomes a ‘Tale of the Soil’, and invites us to feel and play, and explore the possible futures of our personal utopias.
Performed by
Igor Herder
Alina Pilecka
Lotte Verkaik
Zsófia Molnár
Jackie Galama
Saša Skovajsikova
Make-up
Merel van Vlijmen
Music Production
Benjamin Schoones
Design and Illustration by
Naomi Hettiarachchige Hubèrt
Costume Design
Jentl Rietdijk aka Jeshiva Mendel
Photography credits go to Rasheed Vlijter