OPEN CALL FOR WRITERS
Am I Evil?* Brussels Edition
Simone Basani and Alice Ciresola
with Els Moors
![(c) Bilal Kamilla Arnout]()
Can erotic writing become a place for decolonial and feminist exploration?
How could one embrace the tools of erotic writing to unveil, investigate and question power processes of colonisation, discrimination, nanoracism, marginalization, exoticization, abuse and seduction from diverse perspectives?
These questions are at the core of Am I Evil? process writers of all sorts are invited to embark upon.
On this journey the group of writers embrace erotic writing as a tool to investigate their own desire, and how this relates to the Other and the Unknown.
For the duration of the whole journey they stay in dialogue through a peer-to-peer editing methodology. Actually such a methodology is not ‘just’ editing. It is rather an intimate and radical way of dialoguing through re-writing.
Am I Evil? starts off with a-lecture introduction by Basani and Ciresola open to everyone about the legacy of Jeanne Walschot, the first white female dealer and collector of African art we know, active in Brussels from 1920s.
The figure of Mrs. Walschot works efficiently as a site to explore the way Western European culture desires the Other, and the Unknown. With the research of Gloria Wekker, Audre Lorde, bell hooks and Robin diAngelo in mind, this exploration might reveal for instance how whiteness is constructed (culturally, socially, historically) through the look and the touch on the Other.
The process of text writing and re-writing will take place between the end of April and August 2024, both in collective meetings in person and individual sessions at home.
The texts created during this collective journey will be shared with the audience through a printed publication and will have a first presentation moment during the Art Book Fair at Wiels and at nadine, in October 2024.
The Brussels edition of Am I Evil? welcomes as special guests the writers Gabriela Wiener and Cristina Ubah Ali Farah plus other artists to be confirmed.
Context
*Am I Evil? is part of JEANNE. Or the Western Touch, a collection of performative and participatory artworks, curated by Basani and Ciresola. The collection functions as a research- and production-frame through which the curators invite artists, art practitioners, and researchers to create works inspired by the life of Jeanne Walschot. As the title of the collection suggests, these works focus, from different perspectives, on the way European or Western culture looks, touches and relates to the Other.
The workshop borrows the title from a semi-fictional lecture performance by artist Roger Fähndrich about the (sexual) life of African art dealer Jeanne Walschot.
Important to know, if you want to apply:
→ Participants don’t need to have professional previous experience with writing. Still they want to experiment through (erotic) writing
→ Participants have an active interest in what decolonisation means today and might mean tomorrow. Also, they allow themselves to be challenged.
→ Spoken lingua franca of the workshop is English. Nevertheless, each participant can write in the language they prefer among Dutch, English, Italian or German.
→ It is important that the participants join every session and presentation of the workshop in person. If this is not possible please let us know about it when you apply.
→ The number of participants is limited in order to enable a meaningful exchange among them. Please get in touch with Simone at amievil.workshop@gmail.com if you have any other doubts relating to the workshop process: accessibility, conditions for participating, privacy, etc.
→While we recognise that different types of discrimination are deeply embedded in the fabric of European culture, no intentionally discriminatory view will be allowed in the workshop. Am I Evil? is intended primarily as a place to question problematic patterns, not to empower them.
How to apply
In order to apply, please send us a motivation letter (1 A4 length max) telling us why you would like to join the workshop.
In the letter, please indicate the reference to an erotic scene from a book, or a film, or a song where according to you a character discovers something about the way they relate to the ‘Other’, and therefore about themselves. In other words, a scene where the erotic becomes a place for self-investigation about power dynamics, abuse, racism, and other discrimination dynamics. For the letter, please use the language you are most comfortable with among Dutch, French, English, Italian, or German.
Please send your letter by the 24th of March 2024 to Simone Basani, Alice Ciresola, Els Moors to this email address: amievil.workshop@gmail.com.
Calendar
26 April, 7.30 - 9 pm: lecture-introduction to the Am I Evil? Brussels edition [ OPEN TO EVERYONE ]
27 & 28 April, 10am-4.30pm: first workshop weekend
18 & 19 May, 10 am - 4.30pm: second workshop weekend with special guest
8 & 9 June, 10 am - 4.30 pm: third workshop weekend with special guest
June - September: text delivery, proofreading, publication design and printing
5 or 6 October: first public presentation @ Wiels (Art Book Fair) [ OPEN TO EVERYONE ]
19 October: public sharing moment @ nadine and other locations with special guest tbc & with the participants from the Brussels edition [ OPEN TO EVERYONE ]
Credits
Am I Evil? Brussels edition is co-produced by a.pass, nadine, Passa Porta, Moussem, Muntpunt, and radical_hope. With the support of Instituto Cervantes and GC Nekkersdal. Presentations at WIELS | Art Book Fair 2024 and nadine - laboratory for contemporary arts.