OPEN CALL
Moussem is excited to be collaborating with curators Simone Basani and Alice Ciresola, and writer Els Moors for the Brussels edition of their erotic writing workshop Am I Evil? Through this open call, writers of all sorts are invited to engage with the questions at the core of the Am I Evil? process:
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?
On this collective journey, participants embrace erotic writing as a tool to investigate their own desire, and how this relates to the Other and the Unknown.
During this process, the writers engage in a continuous dialogue, facilitated through a peer-to-peer editing methodology. Such a methodology is actually 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 on the legacy of Jeanne Walschot, the first recorded white female dealer and collector of African art, 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 April and August 2024, both in collective in-person meetings and individual sessions at home.
The texts created during this collective journey will be shared with the audience during two presentation moments 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.
About Am I Evil?
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 at, 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
How to apply
In order to apply, please send a short motivation letter (1 A4 length max) explaining 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 and Els Moors to the following email address: amievil.workshop@gmail.com.
Timeline
Credits
Am I Evil? Brussels edition is co-produced by a.pass, nadine, Moussem, Muntpunt, Passa Porta, and radical_hope. With the support of Instituto Cervantes and GC Nekkersdal. Public presentations at WIELS | Art Book Fair 2024 and nadine - laboratory for contemporary arts.
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