JEANNE.
OR THE WESTERN TOUCH
collection of performative and participatory works
2021 - ongoing
various locations in Belgium
The collection includes:
Am I Evil? decolonial writing workshop (2022 - ongoing)
Am I Evil? by Roger Fähndrich (2022)
La Collectionneuse by Maïte Álvarez (2021)
ph: Bilal Kamilla Arnout⌂
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JEANNE. Or the Western Touch is a curatorial format inspired by the controversial relationship that Belgian art collector and dealer Jeanne Walschot established with her collection of African artefacts.
JEANNE seeks to explore European white desires to encounter the so-called Other and the Unknown, and the simultaneous urge to control, possess, and exoticize them.
The project commissions a growing number of interdisciplinary artists to create at least one work for the collection, from their own perspective, in reaction or response to Jeanne Walschot’s life and activities.
Through this process, JEANNE aims to question what this character represents — and resonates with — within the frame of European and more broadly Western culture.
Each work may be accompanied or followed by curated activities such as workshops, lectures, or public events.
JEANNE seeks to explore European white desires to encounter the so-called Other and the Unknown, and the simultaneous urge to control, possess, and exoticize them.
The project commissions a growing number of interdisciplinary artists to create at least one work for the collection, from their own perspective, in reaction or response to Jeanne Walschot’s life and activities.
Through this process, JEANNE aims to question what this character represents — and resonates with — within the frame of European and more broadly Western culture.
Each work may be accompanied or followed by curated activities such as workshops, lectures, or public events.
Curatorship: Simone Basani and Alice Ciresola
Co-produced by:
C-Takt (Neerpelt/Genk), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), wpZimmer (Antwerp), KAAP (Bruges and Ostend), radical_hope (Brussels), Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice), nadine (Brussels), Moussem (Brussels), RITCS (Brussels), Centrale Fies (Dro), Passaporta (Brussels), Muntpunt (Brussels), a:pass (Brussels)
Co-produced by:
C-Takt (Neerpelt/Genk), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), wpZimmer (Antwerp), KAAP (Bruges and Ostend), radical_hope (Brussels), Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice), nadine (Brussels), Moussem (Brussels), RITCS (Brussels), Centrale Fies (Dro), Passaporta (Brussels), Muntpunt (Brussels), a:pass (Brussels)
LA COLLECTIONNEUSE (2021)
by Maïte Álvarezshown in Gruuthusemuseum, Brugge
April 2021
Through writing and by manipulating a collection of personal objects in playful, seductive, possessive ways, Álvarez reconstructs the physical relationship Jeanne Walschot had with her own collection of African artefacts. Through choreographies of touches, Álvarez unfolds the multiple, potential lives of objects that constitute collections, both in private and public contexts. Álvarez engages with a tactile, almost technical, exploration of the objects, of their original and possible usages. By carrying and displaying objects, Álvares creates a fictional world map, explicitly referring to the history of exportation/exploitation of so-called 'exotic' artefacts that is one of the faces of Western colonisation.
With the help of technology, Álvarez constantly stages her own image and the image she wants to give of her objects. The dichotomy between the stillness and the partiality of what is shown on the screen and the richness of the whole choreography experience underlines the implicit power of 'framing'. That power lies as well in the construction of grand, yet partial, narratives created by institutional spaces and, among them, museums. This resonates with Jeanne Walschot’s use of photography as a way to construct her public visual identity and the more intimate narration of her own subjectivity too.
‘La Collectionneuse’ aims to symbolically and temporarily complement Gruuthusemuseum collections, especially the 17th and 18th centuries, that include ‘exotic’ artefacts with performative speculation on Jeanne Walschot, a problematic character which is easy to identify with, especially for a Western white audience.
AM I EVIL? (2022)
by Roger Fähndrichshown @
Budatoren, Kortrijk - 19 May 2022
Salon Arents, Bruges - 19 January 2023
a:pass, Brussels - 19 October 2024
In “Am I Evil?”, 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 Walschot’s feelings. In this quest, he cannot help but questioning his position toward the subject of his research, and specifically his perspective as a white, male artist and songwriter.
AM I EVIL? (2022 - ongoing)
curated by Simone Basani and Alice CiresolaAm I Evil? is a collective exploration of the intersection between desire and colonialist cultures, unfolding through erotic autofictional writing. The figure of trader and collector Jeanne Walschot serves as a starting point to critically observe how whiteness operates. The project uses a peer-to-peer editing method and nourishes itself with the collection of research questions, resonances, and notes.
The written texts form an archive in constant growth. Not less importantly we foster an active dialogue not only with participants but also with invited guest writers and mentors who, in almost every edition of the projectn gift us with decolonial practices and exercises we add to the Am I Evil? toolkit. This way the project turns itself into a living archive of practices in continous construction.
Am I Evil? Kortrijk edition (2022 - 2023)
Am I Evil? Brugge edition (2023 - 2024)
Am I Evil? Gent mini edition (2024)
Am I Evil? @ Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice Edition (2024)
Am I Evil? @ Witches, Centrale Fies, Dro (2024)
⌕ Am I Evil? first Brusseles edition (2025)
Collecting the Other @Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2025) - Am I Evil? spin off
Am I Evil? @ RITCS, Winter School (2025)
Am I Evil? the Teenager Spin-Off (2025)