The Spine

THE SPINE, initiated by Isabel Burr Raty in 2024, weaves together art, ecology and ancestral cosmologies into a long-term research project that explores how we might become earth bodies and medicine for one another. By building relationships with communities dedicated to land restoration and restitution, the project approaches land as a living, communal process, creating ceremonial paths that connect human memory with the memory of the land. These paths become sensory vessels through which dormant knowledge and forms of life can re-emerge, regenerating both human and earth bodies and challenging the colonial separation of bodies from territories, while opening up possibilities for repair.

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

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, Marzia Dalfini and interns Lovely Ratz and Zinabua Caon.