Seasonal Neighbours functions as a gathering of individual practices. For the biennial, Ciel Grommen, Jonathan De Maeyer and Claire Chassot performatively present a selection of the collective’s works and an introduction to their collaborative practice methodology.

Featured works:

1. Aubergine Season Relay, 2021
5:56 min, by Anastasia Eggers

Every year during week 44 the "olympic fire" of the aubergine season is passed on from Westland (Netherlands) to Almería (Spain) to mark the switch of seasons between Europe’s two biggest exporters of aubergines. Looking at how the season is directed by economic aspects, and the logistics that make this switch possible, the project follows the aubergine season and its pathways through Europe.

The project was made possible by a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL.

2. It Was the Shade and the Orchard, 2021 
10:56 min, by Claire Chassot

Performer: Joséphine Tilloy 
Director of Photography: Benjamin Mouly

In a parsley greenhouse in Belgium, the dancer Joséphine Tilloy interprets movements observed by Claire Chassot in a tomato greenhouse in Switzerland. The slow growth of the tomato plants, the flight of bumblebees and the repetitive gestures of the human workers merge into a linear choreography. By observing the life cycles of the living creatures present in a greenhouse and then interpreting these different rhythms, Claire Chassot and Joséphine Tilloy transcribe some of the relationships necessary for agricultural production. 

It Was the Shade and the Orchard also exists as a live performance conceived for agricultural spaces. 

3. Perpendicular Parallels, 2023
(work in progress)
10-15 min, by Karolina Michalik

Set between Poland and Belgium, this short film weaves together individual perspectives of people directly related to mushrooms: wild mushroom pickers, a forest ranger, employees of a mushroom cultivation farm and a mycologist. As a whole, their stories draw a broader picture of topics of conservation, tradition, labor, seasonality, identity and community, in relation to our natural environment, its nuances and contradictions.

4. Seeding Noise – Documentation Video, 2023, by Caroline Profanter & Ines Marita Schärer
± 8min

Director of Photography: Roberto Priamo Sechi

This video documents the concert that concluded Ines and Caroline’s research in a strawberry monoculture greenhouse in Wellen, Flanders.

5. Firing Pot Procession, 2023 by Dallas Collective
± 12min

Concept and firing pot by Dallas Collective (Camille Gaillard & Salomon Tyler)
Direction, camera, editing: Jonathan De Maeyer
Sound, camera assistant: Evert De Maeyer
Interview: TBA

Our "sacred fire pot" is a new ritual object re-interpreting the traditional fire pot and referring to its ancestral meaning as a place for gathering. It has a ceremonial shape and is transportable with the help of four people. In 2022, it was moved in a procession along the antique Roman road that runs through the orchards of Hesbaye in Belgium in order to be lit on the grounds of the fruit company Pipo in Sint-Truiden. The fire pot is featured in this work as a symbol of care, a guardian of the plants against the frost, a protector of the future crops and fruits and, above all, a representative of all the elements and people who have this same temporal and punctual movement.

Audiowalk

I Am Looking at Her Looking at Them Looking at Me, 2021
Audio piece, 3 chapters, 20 min each
Concept & text: Ioana Lupașcu
Sound Composition: Maoyi (Peixuan Qiu)

This sound work was created as an audiowalk in three chapters. Set between Romania and the Netherlands, it explores  how stories of seasonal work abroad gave shape the landscape, the architecture, the habits, the food and the conversations in the village of the artist’s childhood summers. 

The work was made possible by a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL.