"TO BE A BODY FOR THEM, A BODY THEY CANNOT BE"

During this dinner, I want to invite you around a table to share four performative readings of text that I have been writing: "A Future Letter To Consent", "The Heterosexual Duet. R.I.P.", "Going Naked" and "COPYCAT".

These texts are based on the activist and discursive work that I have been doing with Engagement Arts (BE), an artist-led movement that was formed in the wake of #MeToo.

I have made these small performative readings in collaboration with Elsa B. Mason, an illustrator who visually practices the deconstruction of white patriarchy and the need to address feminist failure. Around the time of this event, we will be celebrating 7 years of the #MeToo-movement and the beautiful mess this conversation made in the world of art.

llse Ghekiere is an artist and art critic who works as a dancer, writer, researcher and lecturer. She studied dance at the Conservatory of Antwerp and has a MA in Art Sciences from The Free University of Brussels. As a dancer she has worked with, among others, Michèle Anne De Mey, Mette Ingvartsen, Jan Martens. In 2017, she received a scholarship from the Flemish Government to investigate sexism in the Belgian dance field. She is the founder of ENGAGEMENT ARTS, an artists’ movement that tackles sexual harassment, sexism and abuse of power in the Belgian art world. This platform has made her a spokesperson on these issues, ranging from giving lectures and workshops in art education to speaking for the EU-Parliament. Her artistic work is deeply research based and explores the tensions between sexual liberation and oppression in the arts. Her critical writing has appeared in publications such as Norsk Shakespeare Tidsskrift, Rekto:Verso and Etcetera Tijdschrift. Since 2020, she has been a board member of PRAXIS and co-established the new Praxis Space at Hausmania. Recently, she worked as a dancer for the Norwegian choreographers Solveig Styve Holte and Janne-Camilla Lyster. 

Credits

Concept & Performance: Ilse Ghekiere

With support of Kulturdirektoratet/Arts and Culture Norway

Photo: Henri T