Watou23 – /kom.po’zi.ci.o:/

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Arts Festival Watou 2023

The choice of Composition as the theme for the Watou Arts Festival 2023 stems from both a thinking through of the principle of Patchwork, the open call at the heart of the festival, and from the work of the selected artists. In this, I saw a clear link to the concept of the same name as put forward by French sociologist Bruno Latour.¹

In this particular time, characterised by the consequences of the so-called Anthropocene with undeniable climate warming, and a war that is coming very close to our door, Latour believes it is more important than ever to make well-considered choices, to compose. This is no easy task because it not infrequently means that this sometimes results in controversial outcomes that seem to go against a so-called modern progress and return to archaic solutions without embarrassment. What always comes first is the viability and future of our planet.

In his Attempt at a ‘Compositionist Manifesto’², Latour also links to words like compromise, compromising or the English composure, introducing a certain diplomacy and caution. But playing further, he equally ends up with the ecologically sound compost or the de-composition of various invisible elements. Composing always involves a certain amount of risk: it can succeed but also fail. But at the very least, there is an attempt at constructive construction, a deliberate bringing together of elements while maintaining or respecting their heterogeneity or diversity.

With the festival’s reference to the memory of World War I through the Westhoek project Landscapes/Feel Flanders Fields, the connection to Dadaism is obvious. Indeed, in the midst of wartime, from 1916 onwards, this was for the first time an important and influential cross-pollination between different nationalities, languages, art movements and disciplines in both a highly critical but also playful way. One of the techniques frequently used was that of collage, in which, following the example of the Cubists, mainly everyday objects not necessarily related to art found a place.

The active mixing of (visual) languages – and consequently the notion of translation, learning to understand each other and living together – is an important aspect in the composition and execution of the festival. The choice to use the title in Esperanto expresses this coming together of different languages. The phonetic spelling then gives it a graphically interesting form.

Working with the encounter and exchange on the border between different disciplines is at the heart of both the festival and my practice as a curator. It is complemented in Watou by literally working in a border area. Many Patchwork artists point to their proximity to France in their projects. We therefore chose to use French as an additional language in communication, in order to acknowledge and appreciate the proximity – within walking distance – of a foreign-language country and territory. Meeting and collaborating with the other or the other across country borders or across disciplines thus results in a composition that is in fact a hybrid form.

The notion of the hybrid or hybrid form is therefore an important thread in this edition of the festival. Several projects work around the encounter between the human and the non-human, for example in the focus on the animal voice (in both a vocal and political sense), on the so-called quasi-object in which things become active actors or the use of artificial intelligence. In the focus on working with the earth, by farmers around Watou, for example, or the pressing water shortage, local and global meet. There is often a concern for planet earth and the other or the other. The realisation that nature does not surround us but that we are an integral part of it connects to this.

However, projects within the festival are mainly about curiously discovering the less or totally unknown or what we are in danger of forgetting. The playful reference to science fiction by several artists should therefore be understood in this sense. It is not so much about looking towards new alien worlds, but rather the alien gaze being directed towards earth. This is in order to broaden our horizons and arrive at new insights.

Latour liked to work in a collective context from the realisation that, as a philosopher, he could not solve his issues alone, but needed others with different knowledge and insights to do so. For him, conversation was one of the basic elements in a very specific way of working. It is an exchange of ideas that can lead to new solutions. Even as a curator, I cannot solve things alone and conversation is important to me.

For me, /kom.po’zi.ci.o:/ is very much a collective, non-hierarchical event with, from and for the artists, collaborators, residents and visitors of Watou. It could be read as a manifesto for a different way of working together. But most of all, it hopefully results in a haunting project.

Edith Doove

Rouen, 14 May 2023

1French philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour (1947-2022) wrote on a broad spectrum of topics ranging from economics, politics to philosophy of science. Before that, he regularly collaborated with scientists such as Isabelle Stengers, Vinciane Despret and Donna Haraway, as well as with various artists. Around thinking on geopolitics and ecology, he published, among others, Eye to Eye with Gaia – Eight Lectures on the New Climate Regime. In 2021, he received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. See http://www.bruno-latour.fr/index-2.html

2 Bruno Latour, An Attempt at a “Compositionist Manifesto”, 2015, p.473 e.v.

This edition of the arts festival took place from 1 July until 3 September 2023 in Watou, Belgium.

* artists selected through an open call by jury including Edith Doove

** artists additionally selected by Edith Doove

Find the catalogue here (with translation into English and French at the back).

Gallery of images by Iwert Bernakiewicz of highlights: