Beneath the surface of skin
British artist and 2019 Turner Prize winner Helen Cammock interweaves autobiography with astute sociopolitical observation in her first solo exhibition in Belgium.
In her first solo exhibition in Belgium, 2019 Turner prize winner Helen Cammock presents two recent bodies of work: Che si può fare explores the power of women’s laments and their potential to act as expressions of survival, resilience, and hope. The work was created during a six-month journey across Italy, during which Cammock collected songs, stories and testimonies from performers, activists, artists, politicians, historians, migrants and refugees. The result is a transhistorical, international, contemporary lament of its own, voiced by women across centuries and geographies. In this solo exhibition in STUK, it is followed by the mesmerizing audiovisual essay They Call it Idlewild. Supported by a gentle stream of slowly moving images, Cammock’s voice muses on the concept of idleness, the politics of laziness, and purposelessness as a form of privilege. Two billboards each proposing a question are presented at the entrance and inner courtyard of STUK. They frame They Call it Idlewild, and by extension the entire exhibition in which Cammock manifests once again her particular ability to condense complex thought into moments of keen clarity.
On the occasion of the opening of her solo exhibition, Helen Cammock will perform Shouting in Whispers on the inner courtyard at 19:30.
The Shouting in Whispers performance interweaves song and self written texts, exploring individual and collective moments. It asks questions about how we place ourselves in relation to others, and what we do and feel when confronted with this as both challenge and crisis.
