the hallway ends with changed minds
In November Uschi Cop and Steff Geelen published their chapbooks at Wintertuin Uitgeverij. Uschi published Zwaktebod, a collection of claustrophobic stories about characters whose lives are marked by a desire for meaning. From her chapbook, Uschi developed an existential monologue about the illusion of the narrative and the process of creating Zwaktebod which she will present this evening. At the same time, Steff published their chapbook, De splitsingen, a collection of stories full of misfits and shapeshifter, in which magical metamorphoses turn the characters’ lives upside down. During their performance, Steff brings to life one of the stories with image and audio. Lou Lou Sainsbury and Iduna Paalman will also contribute to this evening. Iduna will read some of her poems and Lou Lou will bring to Perdu her performance General Feeling – a sonic transformative love letter to an alien inside, based around rewritten accounts from Richard Von Kraft Ebbing’s Psychopathia Sexualis.
About the guest speakers
Uschi Cop is a writer, literary curator and doctor of linguistic psychology. Ten years ago, she moved to Brussels and fell in love with the city. In sensuous and sharp prose, she highlights themes such as mourning, feminism, power relations in intimacy and the creative process. She regularly presents poetic text and performances on various stages. She has already written columns for De Morgen and Bruzz and published short stories and poetry in Kluger Hans and Deus Ex Machina, among others. In early 2021, she founded Hyster-x, a Belgian makers collective for women and non-binary people.
Steff Geelen is a writer and maker with a background in sociology. They write prose, poetry, essays and theatre about characters who have their own logic. They also create interdisciplinary work and performances and likes to delve into archives.
Lou Lou Sainsbury is an artist based in Rotterdam. She is a self-described time traveler, making things that unwrite histories of living beings into tricksterish dreamscapes, exploring identity, community and ecological entanglement. She often works in collaboration, guided by improvisation, cinematic processes, and sonic thinking. After graduating from her MA in Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute in 2021, Lou Lou was recipient of the Freelands Gasworks Partnership Programme. Previously she was an associate artist at Open School East in 2017, after completing her BA in Moving Image at the University of Brighton in 2016. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows and group exhibitions internationally.
Iduna Paalman is a poet and writer. In 2019, she published her first collection De grom uit de hond halen, which was awarded the Poetry Debut Prize and nominated for the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize, the C. Buddingh’ Prize and the Eline van Haaren Prize. De Volkskrant proclaimed her literary talent of the year. In 2022, her second collection Bewijs van bewaring came out, with which she won the J.C. Bloem Prize and was nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize. Besides poetry, Iduna writes prose, drama and reviews, and is a teacher.