PROJECT

From the 25th until the 31st of May 2020, Gosie Vervloessem and Carine Meulders invite 7 artists for a collective residency on the theme of Horror & Anthropoceen. The participants are Maria Lucia Cruz Correia, Nada Gambier, Maria Jerez, Marialena Marouda, Diederik Peeters, Edurne Rubio en Sina Seifi.

The point of departure for this residency is the question: if the world manifests itself as a disaster and becomes almost unthinkable, how can we try to understand that world? The effects of climate change and a phenomenon such as the current outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 are driving the unthinkable to the limit: we are becoming more and more aware that our lives take place in a world that is both human and non-human. How do we understand this intense intertwining? How to navigate the world here and now? 

Can the horror genre – as a place where the paradoxical idea of the unthinkable is taking shape – be of any help? Strong horror stories often feature detectives who are somehow derailing. This is their strength: they navigate through the chaos, but are only getting in a top condition when they let the monster in themselves run freely. What can this mean for the position of the artist or artworker, for artistic work research? 
Today, this residency is more relevant than ever. It takes place at a time when measures relating to physical distancing are radically reshaping social life. Rather than canceling everything, our current situation is a challenge to reinvent what a residency can be. How to think the collective today? How to exchange when you can’t sit around a table together or share the floor in the studio? How to go beyond coming together on the screen of a digital platform?