The Spine

The Spine weaves together visual arts, live performance, and pedagogy into a transdisciplinary research project exploring how to become an earth body and medicine for each another. By building relationships with communities dedicated to land restoration and restitution, the project transforms pockets of these lands into interactive canvases. Within these spaces, it develops an installation performance that establishes ceremonial gifting platforms designed to revive the soil, regenerate both human and earth bodies, and directly dismantle the colonial mindset that separates bodies from territories.

Between 2026 and 2027, The Spine will be materialised and activated at Zarlardingas Farm in Belgium, investigating how this project contributes to the rewilding processes of a privately owned nature reserve. Grounded in this experience, The Spine will travel to Easter Island. Here, in collaboration with the Rapa Nui community, it will explore the potential of unearthing ancestral traditions buried by colonialism across sacred archaeological sites. Shorter residencies along the way, at Casa delle Agriculture on the Italian peninsula of Salento, Lecce, and in the Mexican jungle of Los Tuxtlas with Topote de Acahual, allow us to imagine possible futures for The Spine within these initiatives that repair local eco-social systems.

—

The Spine is realised in collaboration with: Judith Wielander, Joachim Ben Yakoub, Pamela Hucke, An Mertens, Philip Malcorps, Rachel Zeba, Elke Van Campenhout, and Camila Montero Elgueta

With the support of : Flanders — State of the Art and Le Fond de la Recherche en Art

In co-production with: VIERNULVIER, nadine, Constant, Out of Sight, and Topote de Acahual Veracruz

With the kind support of: Zarlardingas Farm Geraardsbergen, Rapa Nui community Easter Island, and Casa delle Agriculture Lecce

With the kind companionship of: Wiels and KVS

Thanks to the creative advice of: Adva Zakai, Einat Tuchman, Kristin Rogghe, Patricia Barakat, and Marzia Dalfini