Watou23 closed with a marvelous sunny and busy weekend. We rounded off with more than 21.000 visitors, 5% more than last year – not too bad!
Iwert Bernakiewicz, one of the selected Patchwwwork-artists, made a wonderful series of photographs that reflect beautifully what the festival was about. Find these and more information on the dedicated page (under construction).
As curator visual arts of the arts festival Watou23 I decided on the theme of composition as a tribute to sociologist Bruno Latour who frequently used this notion. In this specific era, characterised by the consequences of the so-called Anthropocene with an undeniable warming of the climate and a war that is coming very close to our doorstep, according to Latour it is more important than ever to make well-considered choices, to compose. Situated close to the border with France, this also alluded to the necessity of crossing borders, but also to be open to unexpected relations between the human and nonhuman. The theme was intended to support the proposals of the artists, not the other way around. For graphical reasons, but also to choose a truly border-crossing language, the title was written phonetically in Esperanto: /kom.po’zi.ci.o:/
The participating artists were:
Beatrijs Albers & Reggy Timmermans* (BE) – Niels Albers (NL) – Funda Zeynep Ayguler & Anton Filatov (DE) –Iwert Bernakiewicz (BE) – Sven Boel (BE) – Cloé Decroix* (FR) – Alexandra Dementieva* (BE) – Niel de Vries (NL) – Berlinde De Bruyckere (BE) – Griet Dobbels (BE) – Philippe Druez (BE) – Juls Gabs (UK) – Benoît Géhanne* (FR) –Marilyne Grimmer (FR) – Marc Hamandjian* (FR) – Nathalie Hunter* (BE) – Maarten Inghels (BE) – Pierre Mertens* (BE) –Charlotte Eta Mumm (DE) – Öznur Özturk (BE) – Alain Platel & Mirjam Devriendt (BE) – Jiajia Qi (CN) – Henk Schut (NL) –Robert Ssempijja (UG) – Koen Vanmechelen* (BE) –Louisiana Van Onna (NL) – Wouter Vanderstede & Peter Simon (BE) – Various Artists & Tijdelijk Informatie Centrum, afdeling Watou (BE) – Esther Venrooij* (NL) – Joris Vermassen (BE).
*Selected by Edith Doove.
The participating poets were, selected by curator Michaël Vandebril:
Alara Adilow (NL) – Anna Broeksma (NL) – Joost Decorte (BE) – Lotte Dodion (BE) – Radna Fabias (NL) – Marie Ginet (FR) – Max Greyson (BE) – Luuk Gruwez (BE) – Ilya Kaminsky (US/UKR) – Mustafa Kör (BE) – Caroline Lamarche (BE) – Marije Langelaar (NL) – Delphine Lecompte (BE) – Lisette Lombé (BE) – Gerry Loose (UK) – Nisrine Mbarki (NL) – Tijl Nuyts (BE) – Johanna Pas (BE) – Ester Naomi Perquin (NL) – Alsane Thengrim (SE/FR) – Siel Verhanneman (BE)
Featured image: Griet Dobbels, The Cow and the Goat, video, photo Iwert Bernakiewicz
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