Dissident Brooms - Clio Van Aerde

Join us from 18:30 to 21:30 for the work-in-progress showing of Dissident Brooms, presented at the end of Clio Van Aerde’s residency. Through sculptural “dysfunctional” brooms that question ideas of labour and usefulness, the evening offers a first glimpse into her ongoing research.  During the first part of the evening, at 19:00, the showing will host the performance Work It – Poetics of Bodies at Work, a choreographic exploration of bodies, tools, and invisible labour.

Dissident Brooms - Work-in-progress showing

18:30 - 21:30 

Dissident Brooms is a sculpture series within the research project Work It, which explores functional movement and the relationship between bodies, tools, and labour. Centering the broom as both an epistemic object and a symbol of invisible labour, the work poetically challenges conventional ideas of “skilled” labour by examining how humans, objects, and environments shape one another.

Working manually and improvising with materials at hand, the brooms become kinetic, interactive sculptures that invite touch, play, and negotiation. By sabotaging function through humour and absurdity, the project reveals the poetic and subversive potential hidden in everyday tools. It questions ideas of usefulness and productivity, while reflecting on how tools, labour, and material culture shape both personal and collective identities.

Work It – Poetics of Bodies at Work - Performance

19:00

The performance, Work It – Poetics of Bodies at Work, engages with functional movement and the relationship between (human) bodies, tools and labour. It is a poetic and choreographic exploration of manual labour, centered around the broom as an epistemic object, and as the tool and the symbol for invisible labour. By focusing on the broom, it challenges conventional notions of ‘skilled’ labour by investigating how humans, things and their surrounding mutually influence and shape each other.
The performance deals with the question of how invisible labour issues can be illustrated in a performance context and how the utilitarian use of the broom can be subverted. Fostering a sense of attention and absurdity, Work It – Poetics of Bodies at Work aims to highlight through the broom, current systemic power structures and everyday performativity established within and around the working world.