Soup Session by Eline De Clercq and Roel Arkesteijn
invited by research group Body and Material Reinvented
Thursday 17 November, 12:30-14:00
at the garden of the Academy, next to the Temple
Body and Material Reinvented presents a dialogue between artist-researcher Eline De Clercq and Roel Arkesteijn, curator and coordinator of the research group. Eline De Clercq will talk about the 'sympoiesis garden' she is creating at the Academy.
'The sympoiesis garden' is an investigation into the creation of a garden as an artistic work field. The garden patch next to the temple becomes a participatory research garden where students can help with ecological restoration to get in touch with nature. This garden offers the possibility to connect an artistic education with ecological awareness by helping out. For artists who want to work climate-consciously, the garden is an environment for theory and practice. To activate this, Eline De Clercq will weekly work in the garden and students can help with the ecological restoration of this part of the Academy garden. This garden is the work field for the themes queer kinship, rewilding, situated knowledge and staying with the trouble; all inspired by the book of the same name by Donna Haraway.
Eline De Clercq
In 2001, Eline De Clercq graduated from KASK Ghent with a master in visual arts from the painting department. Subsequently, she developed her artistic practice in parallel and worked as a volunteer in the botanical garden in Ghent. Through regular stays in Japan, her artistic vision combines Eastern and Western principles. She remaisn a painter but her practice is also about writing texts, making books, using fabric installations and painting flags. Since 2019, she has been working on the Gesamthof, a lesbian garden in which she shares botanical knowledge with artists interested in the various intersectional themes associated with the garden. By means of guided tours, the themes of decolonialism, queerness, ecofeminism and climate change are addressed. Her practice departs from her personal experiences as a lesbian artist, and she chooses to use a 'lesbian' understanding including trans women and non-binary people.
www.elinedeclercq.com