Artists : Letizia Acosta - Charlotte Gruber - Julie Van Wezemael - Elien Ronse - Dominique De Groen - Jana Vasiljević
Curators : Jana Vasiljević - Charlotte Gruber - Letizia Acosta - Aike Abeke Roodenburg
Photographer : Lisa Piette
Writer : Charlotte Gruber

The event took place on 14th of March and was advertised as follows:











Individual slots of 30 minutes could be booked online and participants were welcomed at the entrance of the BLANCO space by an introduction team providing them with headphones and an audio guide. While listening to the recording the visitors were asked to enter the space.The audio guide, made by Charlotte Gruber is a crucial part of the expo and its curatorial framework.

Documentation
‘Holding Space is a Work of Art’

‘Holding Space is a Work of Art // Performance, Expo, Intervention

Book your slot to join us at BLANCO this Sunday for
a guided one on one intimate reflection on COVID, home office hatred, temporarily vacant exhibition spaces, homeless artworks and putting women in their place.
Or feel free to just work for half an hour at our
flex desk. Take part in one of the first actions
by the G.O.D. collective.’

The two women, who are mentioned in the recording, members of the G.O.D. collective (Charlotte and Letizia) are sitting at their desks as they are using the gallery space as a temporary working space.

There is a third desk, which is also labelled as an artwork itself titled ‘Fuck you homeoffice, I work here all the time, flexdesk’. It is covered in feminist readings and articles on the pressure the Covid-crisis has put on women, especially mothers. One of the articles from a German newspaper features a picture of Charlotte pushing her son in his stroller across a street in Berlin.

Next to, and behind the wall with the concrete poem ‘When the Holding Doesn’t Hold’ by Charlotte Gruber a number of other works are installed.

The installation behind the wall, shows a laptop with zoom on, on an ironing board. Three different members of the collective can be watched doing the work they do ‘behind the scenes’ of working as an artist. Julie installed her phone so we can watch her working her second job as a Barista. She is wearing a T-Shirt that says ‘I am Part of an Exhibition’. Elien is at home and does a performance where she tries to recreate a working day as a hotel maid where she sometimes had to make up 52 beds in a day. She set out to make her own bed in her small room in Brussels 52 times in one hour. She draws a link between chores at home and paid chores - the same work, less levels of recognition. Dominique, who is a poet currently working on her first novel can be viewed typing away on her laptop. The title ‘Professioneel Werken Achter de Schermen’ alludes not only to having to work several jobs next to being an artist, or to having to work a lot with screens due to covid, but also to the type of contract that the collective made to be able to work in spaces of NUCLEO vzw. These contracts are placed next to the installation and they actually say ‘Professioneel Werken Achter de Schermen’, a type of volunteer agreement.

Several members of the collective brought their laundry, asking exhibition visitors to support them by folding the laundry for them. This part is titled ‘It is okay to ask for help / My ex still drops his laundry off at his mother’s house’.

On an iPad nearby, on the door that leads to the exhibition’s space kitchen, a video work of Elien Ronse is displayed, which was realised in collaboration with Manoeuvre. ‘“Finally!! My kitchen tour for you guys!” In this video she shows you around in her new kitchen, fully equipped with designs by Ismigül, Rika, Marleen, Chris, Fadime, Derya, Canan, Sultan and Leyla, the video can be viewed via this link https://youtu.be/ia4f34vZuHE.

By the window there is an altar installed by Letizia Acosta to honour the artists working in the space and the women who came before them who never had space held for them. It was used by the two women working in the space before they had even decided to do an expo in the space.

Across from the flex desk, there is an installation of all the ideas for work handed in by all the members of the collective who did not have time to participate. These are ideas that were developed in less than three days and shared online.

Lastly there is a wall with bios of every single member of the collective. It is titled ‘Your absence is present’.

On the way to the exit, there is a small frame, showing a picture of two little boys playing with building blocks in the exhibition space. It is a picture of the sons of the two members of the collective, who are working at the two desks. The picture was taken during the first meeting to organise the expo.

After the expo was finished Julie, ‘the Barista’, brought leftover cake and we had a collective celebratory ‘dinner’.

‘On a painting in progress’ - L. Acosta

‘Behind the scenes - Professioneel werken achter de schermen’

‘I thought you told me to cleanse the space, so I brought sage and candles’ - L. Acosta