Held by Shift*s 

A project emerging from the collective work of Shif—t*

Held By Shift*s is a one-day participatory symposium organised by Shif—t* and hosted in De Verffabriek in Mariakerke, Ghent. Bringing together the voices and practices of KINcollective, beaudine dermine, and Anaïs Kabore, the program explores how artists facing precarity can reimagine community through embodied and collective forms of knowledge.

Rooted in the idea of holding—as both gathering and supporting—Held By Shift*s reinterprets the symposium as an “open school,” where learning happens through shared presence, care, and experimentation rather than academic hierarchy. The project returns to the etymological meaning of “symposium” as a moment of communal gathering, where ideas are exchanged as freely as food, gestures, and emotion.


Throughout the day, participants are guided through embodied artistic strategies that use imagination, vulnerability, and queerness as gateways to knowledge. Workshops, discussions, a collective dinner, readings, and screenings invite reflection on how we might build community in times of uncertainty.


Developed during a series of residencies at De Verffabriek, Held By Shift*s forms part of an ongoing investigation by Shif—t* into non-hierarchical forms of learning and making. The project is supported by Stad Gent and contributes to the city’s growing network of artist-run, queer, and transdisciplinary initiatives that foreground care as a cultural practice.


Photography credits go to Laura Smekens