Because we are so obsessed with growth and progress we exhaust the earth and ourselves, feels Emmeline de Mooij. We have forgotten the importance of care, maintenance, recuperation and repair and have now reached the point where our cherished belief in progress is no longer tenable. Progress will turn into regression, which in turn leads to impoverishment and loss of comfort. However, it is also an opportunity to repair our broken relationship with our direct environment and other people. Together with Suns and Stars and curator Marjoca de Greef, Emmeline de Mooij organizes Huishoudschool (Home Economics Class): one performance and two workshops on repair, care and recuperation.
The workshop’s activities fall into the domestic domain. Usually we perform our household chores reluctantly and as quickly as possible, but due to their repetitive nature these activities are a lot like rituals, and therefore they have spiritual potential. Huishoudschool is an exchange of knowledge of domestic chores and will give the domestic domain the spiritual status it deserves. Since all activities are very hands-on, the workshops offer participants the opportunity to be part of a social process again. They therefore have a therapeutic effect. Huishoudschool is a sanatorium for things and people.
As an artist, Emmeline de Mooij (NL, 1978) focuses on sketching speculative and alternative scenarios in which she tries to explore the possibilities of restoring a lost unity between people and their environment, using the principles of feminist performance art as well as institutional criticism. De Mooij studied at Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, School of Visual Arts in New York and Bard College in New York. She was nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs.
For Suns and Stars Marjoca de Greef (NL, 1965) developed a number of exploratory exhibitions set in places of historical, cultural or industrial value.
The performance takes place on June 22 at 2 pm. The workshops will take place on June 23, June 24 at 2 pm. The workshops on June 23 and 24 are limited to 15 participants, please sign up at info@sunsandstars.nl. On June, from 12 until 5.30 pm, all objects made, repaired of cared for during the workshops are incorporated in an installation. On June 23 at 5 pm Emmeline de Mooij wil present her new book Art in Therapy in Care Center.
