Sietske van Aerde - 1000 girls, A place we go

In her film 100 Girls A Place We Go Sietske Van Aerde takes the viewer through a series of playful transformations. Inspired by the nymphs from Ovid's Metamorphoses, who constantly change shape because of the evil done to them by the gods, the film talks about a number of people who look for ways to exist in a world that is sometimes heavy. Van Aerde films her own environment and shows friends, artists and other passersby who talk about themselves, allowing several inner portraits to unfold.

The tale starts from drawings from half-human, half-animal creatures, figures in the middle of a transformation. Due to Van Aerde's background in costume design, they are reminiscent of sketches for potential costumes, designs that allow one to assume a new form. The film thematises the role of clothing, make-up, and hair as instruments of transformation, ways in which people can define their identity. A host of colorful characters, whose outward features reflect or mask their inner world, pass in review. They speak of their childhood, of deviating from the norm, and of how they have transformed themselves or are still transforming.

The film glides between different registers. Van Aerde films people who cross her path in daily life. A woman on the tram in a leopard-print coat, a girl with long, red-dyed hair. People whom Van Aerde suspects express themselves, consciously or unconsciously, through their appearance. Additionally, metamorphoses are depicted using body paint: characters transform into the moon, a tree, a spider, a parrot, an ox. A common thread running through the film is the story of two characters who have each transformed themselves in their own way and find recognition and love in each other. 100 Girls A Place We Go is a film about the places, whether physical or in our imagination, where we go in order to simply be.

From this video work emerges a new layer: an echo in the form of a soundscape by Emeline Descreaux, which audibly further opens and deepens the theme of transformation. Simultaneously, Sietske Van Aerde and Clara Lissens develop a performance that functions as a living echo of the film. In this, elements from the video are highlighted and reworked: large drawings on textiles and costumes, which originally served as script material, acquire a spatial and physical presence.

The installation is activated by various invited artists, each adding their own interpretation, thereby allowing new forms to emerge within the work. During the residency at STUK, Sietske, Clara, and Emeline further develop the performance, experimenting with text, music, vocals, and scenography.

Within this residency, Clara Lissens, Sietske Van Aerde, and Emeline Descreaux explore how film, sound, scenography, and the body can flow into one another. This results in a series of tableaux vivants that Van Aerde further develops for the performance on May 7, 2026, at Vonk in Hasselt.