The Motherness Galaxy Chapter 2: Mourning & Mothering
Castélie Yalombo & Sophie Farza
- Sun 15.6 14:00 — 18:00 Meeting point
Salon
This talk will take place in Dutch, English en French, with whispered translation when necessary.
The Motherness Galaxy is the title of a series of gatherings dedicated to exploring the complexities of motherhood and mothering and their connection to power, life/death and mourning. When and where does life begin? How and who gets to decide? Castélie Yalombo and Sophie Farza invite artists, thinkers, social workers, and anyone interested to delve into the nuances of motherhood.
Where and when does life begin, and who gets to decide?
After the first chapter Bad Mother in Beursschouwburg, in which we discussed a mother’s guilt in various situations, we welcome you for this second chapter Mourning & Mothering. Maternal bodies are uniquely positioned as they bear witness to the proximity of the appearance and disappearance of life within their own flesh. These experiences are loaded with fantasies and symbols, creating a sensitive and often challenging environment to support the psychological and reproductive lives of women and parents.
The transmission of knowledge about the female body from woman to woman has disappeared in favour of centralised medical knowledge. While childbirth, bereavement and – more symbolically – death no longer take place at home. Doctors and healthcare workers are the representatives, managers and privileged witnesses of these events. This chapter looks at the grief mechanisms created by healthcare structures, especially in the context of terminations of pregnancy or the loss of a baby. What is it like to be close to death in a society that tends to keep death at bay?
Programme
Reception
Introduction to The Motherness Galaxy
Introduction and opening of the motherness galaxy, a living archive of collected materials and conversations regarding mother figures and mothering (acts of motherhood) from different perspectives: interviews, literature, sociology, psychoanalysis, politics, etc.
Griefs Practices workshop
In this workshop we would like to dive into the meanings we give to grief or mourning. Through reading, questioning, talking and playing, we like to guide you through a timespace where to unfold your language of grief and mourning, and reflect on the way we relate to loss, absence, disappearance and powerlessness in our life. What meaning do we give to them? How much can we let them affect us?
We want to offer a space that can be safe and brave, where we dare to ask and slide between intimate and reflexive, political, symbolic and pragmatic. With curiosity, openness and non-judgment we learn to deeply listen to each other’s inner worlds. It’s also an invitation to embody listening, talking, reading, caring, supporting, lifting, giving, turning, […] each other.
Galaxy Talk
Galaxy Talk is an open, non-judgemental and curious conversation featuring a doctor, a midwife, a sociologist and an artist. What place do emotions have in healthcare? How do they deal with death and grief in the context of pregnancy interruptions (spontaneous or voluntary) or loss of a child ? How to accompany a patient in this process ?
Galaxy Talk wants to be a space where we learn from each other’s experiences and where different perspectives can coexist.
- Mahoro Karera is a midwife in a hospital environment in Brussels, working in the department of neonatology.
- Anne-Sophie Crossetti is a sociologist. Her research project focuses on the “pro-life” movements in Belgium, France and Ireland, from an international and socio-historical perspective. More generally, her research lies at the crossroads of the sociology of gender, sexuality and religion.
- Ann Langedock is a OB/GYN working in Kortrijk Hospital.
- Salomé Van Billioen, criminologist, artist and activist, is engaged in restorative justice and will represent Pass-ages, a place that welcomes birthing and dying, in an intergenerational cohousing building in Brussels.