To Weave a Story

short residency programme and public exhibition,
De Verffabriek, Gent~March, 2024



    Conventional modes of storytelling revolve around the singular male Hero. Other characters, non-human life and the environment become intelligible only in their value as instruments for the Hero in his quest to overcome the conflict named plot. Firmly cemented in the idea of survival of the fittest, these conventions reaffirm the separation between man and nature, and with it the total mastery of the former over the latter. The natural environment becomes a backdrop for the Hero, ready to be used. In this manner, storytelling fails to portray the urgencies of the looming climate catastrophe meaningfully. At the same time, this separation anchors the idea of the gendered division of labour. Woman are relegated towards nature's side, in which they are comprehended based on their reproductional value. The triumph, or success, of the Hero, reflects the success of heteronormative society.

    The story in which everything is instrumentalized is the story we inhabit today. As life is reduced to abstract units—such as atoms, organs, numbers or binary language—truths that cannot be comprehended by the quantified measure of success, fail to become intelligible. The queer subject, who is epistemologically interwoven to nonsense, antiproduction and unintelligibility does not fit within the typical Hero story. To become intelligible in this manner would mean to be translated to fit into the capitalist, heteronormative definition of success.

    To Weave a Story sets out to find a diversification not only in the subjects of our stories, but to diversify the very way in which stories are formed, and told. Artworks form props, fictional characters, natural life and backdrops. These deconstructed elements of a story become building blocks in a workshop aiming to queer modes of storytelling. The outcomes of this workshop become the foundation for performance and oral storytelling sessions, through which the narrative of the exhibition keeps changing throughout the day. Each hour unveils a fresh narrative, weaving together the deconstructed elements in new ways, defying the conventional and illuminating the rich tapestry of plural perspectives.

(Sjoerd Beijers)

Co-produced and curated by
Natalija Gucheva & I

Artists
Aidan Abnet
Justine Grillet
Guillaume Jannes
Jochem Mestriner
Samuel White Evans
& Natalija Gucheva

Writers
Isa Vink
Jule Köepke
Jesse Kempkes
Babette Lagrange
& Sjoerd Beijers

This project is supported by Alles Kan & Stad Gent.

Photography by Johan Poezevara