IMAGINE TO HAVE BEEN INVITED TO A DINNER.
IMAGINE TO HAVE ACCEPTED THE INVITATION.
IMAGINE TO HAVE ATTENDED THE DINNER AND IMAGINE THE DINNER TO HAVE BEEN ALMOST EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE IMAGINED.
HOW CLOSE ARE EXACTLY AND ALMOST EXACTLY ?
AND HOW FAR IS ALMOST EXACTLY FROM NOT AT ALL ?
In March 2018 ceci invited a group of colleagues, artists, designers, writers to join us around a dinner table for an evening-long encounter with the question 'How do things take shape?'. The stage for the event were several rooms in the Maison des Arts in Schaerbeek. The boundaries between the informal and convivial setting of the dinner and ceci's performative and scenographic interventions were left consciously ambiguous. What has been given shape? What do we assign shape to? What remains shapeless, unremarked in the background?
The guests : Alexis Gautier (visual artist), Ann Goovaerts (collaborator nadine), Christel Vesters (curator, writer), Elle (monk, teachter), Ernst van de Hoeve (editor magazine McGuffin), Hedwig Houben (visual artist), Hilde Bouchez (design researcher, teacher, writer), Laetitia Gendre (visual artist), Loes Jacobs (curator), Sanny de Soete (textile specialist), Sara Seijn Chang (visual artist), Stephan Keppel (photographer), Various Artists (visual artist)
The absent guest : Christoph Hefti (artist) was interviewed by ceci after the dinner had taken place
The contributors : Sanny de Soete provided the antique damask table linnen from Queen Emma of the Netherlands, Bruno de Wachter (writer) read his short story "Paradise Valley and the End of the World".
The witness : Stephan Keppel, photographer, accompanied the evening with his camera. His pictures are the only material traces of the evening.
The cook : Christian Töpfner
The menu : 1. oysters and champagne 2. transparent fish soup with chopsticks and shell 3. eggs of all kinds of chickens in various colours and sizes, cauliflower, potatoes, white sauce 4. vegan hot hot chocolate with cognac, marshmellows and a story in the dark + original "venice" coca-cola, white and red wine, water, juice
