Can erotic writing become a place for decolonial and feminist exploration?
How could one embrace the tools of erotic writing to investigate power processes of colonisation, discrimination, nanoracism, marginalization, exoticization, abuse and seduction from diverse perspectives?
With a series of workshops, Am I Evil? invites writers of all sorts to explore these questions through a collective research journey, inspired by the life of African art collector and trader Jeanne Walschot.
Curatorship: Simone Basani and Alice Ciresola
Lecture-performance as workshop introduction: Roger Fähndrich
Invited writer: Els Moors
Lecture-performance as workshop introduction: Roger Fähndrich
Invited writer: Els Moors
THE WORKSHOP
Every edition of the workshop is introduced by a public showing of Am I Evil?, the lecture performance* about Jeanne Walschot that gives the title to the whole project.
After this show, the doors for the general audience close, and Am I Evil? participants - writers of all sorts interested in the research questions - get to know each other. Guided by a writer and the project curators, they focus on the life and the figure of Jeanne Walschot, observe what it triggered in them, and start working on their own text.
The hosting institution/s themselves can become a site of exploration too, resonating with the initial questions of the project. This has been the case of MuseaBrugge, one of the project partners, with its heritage of colonial artefacts.
The whole group of participants work in presence for at least two or three weekends scattered on a span of minimum a month and maxim six. Yet they remain in dialogue even when distant from each other, through a methodology of peer-to-peer mentoring and reviewing.
Such a reviewing methodology is not based on exchange of opinions, but works through the practice of changing and reworking texts of other people, to let them see other possibilities in their texts. We consider this methodology a practice of dialoguing. Every writer is free to accept the changes or not, and if so, to modify them as they like it. Next or after the reviewing methodology itself, the writers are encouraged to get in touch with each other, also privately, if they need to clarify something.
THE LECTURE-PERFORMANCE
English, +/- 50 min
The lecture-performance was created by Roger Fähndrich as a commission for JEANNE. Or the Western Touch collection.
In this lecture-performance, Roger Fähndrich starts from the scarce historical information about art dealer and collector Jeanne Walschot to create a challenging, semi-fictional reading-performance about her life.
By bringing in multiple characters, he tries to fill in the gaps in her life story to understand Walshot’s feelings.
In this quest, he cannot help but question his position toward the subject of his research, and specifically his perspective as a white, male artist and songwriter.
AM I EVIL? Kortrijk edition (2022 - 2023)
19 - 22 May 2022 (workshop)
28 - 29 August 2022 (workshop)
Presentations:
Memento Festival: 18 March 2023
Almost Summer / Apap - Feminist Futures: 8 July 2023
Writers: Maite Vanthournout, Tess Van Deynse, Massimiliano Doni, Jordy Spyt, Ann Bellemans, Mieke Stessens, KimmeTigra, Mario Vanhuylenbrouck, Yanne Ryon, Ian Maene, Diana Duta, Astrophysicist69, Dirk Elst, Alice Ciresola, Loeke Vanhoutteghem
Live illustrator (Memento festival): Cleo Bissong
Proofreading: Bruno De Wachter and Diana Duta
Booklet design: rien_de_nouveau_ici
Co-produced by Kunstencentrum BUDA, Letterzetter/ Bib Kortrijk, Memento festival, C-Takt & radical_hope
read the full booklet online ︎
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AM I EVIL? Brugge edition (2023 - 2024)
20-21-22 January 2023 (workshop)
1 - 2 April 2023 (workshop)
Presentation:
18 March 2024: Am I Evil? The Exiled Brugge Edition @ Kiosk, Gent
Writers: H. de S., Lore D. Selys, Roger Fähndrich, Maria Amparo / Maite Vanthournout, Els Moors, Massimiliano Doni, Adele A., Annemie Craeye
Booklet design: rien_de_nouveau_ici
Proofreading: Bruno De Wachter and Diana Duta
Printed at nadine, 100 copies, March 2024
Workshop co-produced by KAAP, Salon Arents / MuseaBrugge
Am I Evil? The Exiled Brugge Edition @ Kiosk, Gent co-produced by KAAP, Salon Arents / MuseaBrugge, nadine, radical_hoope, KIOSK & KASK.
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AM I EVIL? Gent mini edition
as part of Am I Evil? The Exiled Brugge Edition @ Kiosk, Gent19 - 22 March 2024 (workshop + internal presentation)
Writers: Joris Echezier, Lucio Guarinoni, Anna Laura Penna, Hanna De Grave Loyson, Adele A., Linde Moreel
Am I Evil? The Exiled Brugge Edition @ Kiosk, Gent co-produced by KAAP, Salon Arents / MuseaBrugge, nadine, radical_hope, KIOSK & KASK.
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AM I EVIL? @ Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice Edition
3 - 5 + 24 - 27 June (workshop + internal presentation)Curation: Simone Basani
Invited writing mentor: Cristina Ubah Ali Farah
Dramaturgical assistance: Lucio Guarinoni
Authors: Alessandra Luisa Cozzi, Anna Laura Penna, Blanca Zamperini, Eris Previtali, Gaia Finotello, Giulia Longoni, Laura Azzali, Raffaella Menchetti
Workshop commissioned and produced by Collection Peggy Guggenheim
