‘Oops, I arted’: a peek behind the curtain during a residency in playful exploration and losing control
Young artists often experience the art world as isolating. In addition, graduating an art education comes with uncertainties: the pressure from outside makes chasing success and popularity seem more important than a creative process. Together with the Belgian ABC collective, we want to change this. Through a playful and sunny residency project, we welcome international collectives struggling with the same challenges. From our respective corners of Europe we meet in Destelheide for artistic development and intercultural exchange.
‘Oops, I arted’
Cil De Vylder, Amber Gyselings, Birthe Janssens, Anneka Robeyns and Chiara Daneels form the ABC collective. Five young Belgian artists at the start of a promising career in the arts. Fresh out of school and full of artistic ideas, but at the same time holding many questions and uncertainties.
From these questions and needs came 'Oops I arted', an international residency project created with the support of Jint, Destelheide, the European Commission en Erasmus Youth. From 6 to 11 July, three collectives from different corners of Europe are heading to Destelheide for artistic development and intercultural exchange. Their goal? Not having one. The artists are creating time and space to reintroduce chance into their creative process. This time without pressure from the outside world. In Destelheide, they will let go of their urge for control, mistakes are encouraged and the process once again becomes more important than the end result.
Through playful workshops and sessions, the ABC collective will delve deeper into the questions that keep them awake at night as young artists. And they won't do so alone: from Europe, other collectives will join them to exchange about their needs as young creators. Zut mon Sac (NL) and Caterpillar Collective (DE) do recognise themselves in the ABC collective's questions, and will join them in Destelheide in their search for a way to deal with them.
Curious about their creative adventures? The ABC collective is taking over the Kunstwerkt social media for a whole week. Follow along via the Instagram channel or the Kunstwerkt Facebook page!
