Choreographic interactions Castélie Yalombo
Castélie Yalombo questions the status of collective identity, otherness, and relationships, as well as the subject/object status of the body.ue de Castélie Yalombo.
Dance dramaturgy
The “Dance dramaturgies” series of encounters and workshops explores issues linked to choreographic dramaturgies from a highly practical perspective. Consciously itinerant, alternating between public meetings (conferences, round tables) and workshops based on concrete cases, these encounters are intended above all to be a platform for re-exploring experiences and sharing research.
This programme is being run in collaboration with La Bellone, a centre for research and artistic reflection and with various venues in Wallonia and Brussels.
First edition: Decoloniality seminar, 13, 14, 15 March 2024 led by Castélie Yalombo and Arnaud Timmermans.
The aim of this seminar will be to question people working in the cultural sector about decoloniality issues. Sessions with mixed and non-mixed groups will identify these issues and discuss them with guest experts.
« On Motherness »
On Motherness is an exploration of the mother figure in its interaction with culture, the symbolic, the political and biological. At the beginning of this speculative quest, we are seeking to articulate a mother figure stripped of her link to the child, no longer solely defined by her interdependence with the child. If we assume that what characterises the maternal no longer resides in the visceral and intimate bond between a being and its offspring, where do we find its source? What would a mother be without a child? A mother who would no longer be “of the child”, “of the other” but a mother without, in order to become a mother “for the child”, “for the other” and “for herself”. Could we then envisage that the maternal is no longer a characteristic of the feminine, attached to the person of “the woman”, but a living, neutral principle that can offer a way of connecting with an incarnate power that goes beyond identity and is present in everyone?
On Motherness is a research project in the form of a symposium-festival in autumn 2024 and a performance in 2025. The symposium-festival is intended to be visible, in a public place and time, dedicated to reflecting on and putting into practice a sensitive ecology of “mothering” *. The performance over a long period is a solo, relayed between a group of performers.
Gathering stories
Gatherings will take place in different venues, including Atelier 210 and the budakunstcentrum. These talking circles will collect stories from people with a uterus. Each venue will host different people and guests and will tackle different aspects of the motherhood theme.
During these talking circles, women will be able to express themselves on abortion (on the experience rather than abortion rights), miscarriage (When do you become a mother? When do we talk about a life? When is the process of motherhood interrupted? Can a miscarriage be induced?), and political issues (the mother figure used as a political tool to stabilise society, the family and reconstituted families in society).
* a caring practice central to the creation of the “family”, domesticity, and the reproductive work of society: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40963276
The mother stood facing the child. But what happens to the mother when the child disappears? Does the “mother” remain in the body when the gestation of an unborn life fails?
