Maleficia
2020-22
Maleficia is a site-specific installation inspired by a relief in the fireplace of an exhibition space in Antwerp.
The relief shows a woman who is just returning from working in the fields. Her clothes, however, look nothing
like hard work, nor does her posture: she seems to be balancing a basket filled with the harvest on her head
with ease, while she courageously bites into a fruit.
The installation is composed of the following elements:
- An iron shelf built for the fireplace.
- An edition of schnapps distilled from canned peaches by artist Frédéric Ehlers for the occasion of the
- exhibition Pale Burnt Lake at Annie Gentils Gallery.
- A handout that communicates context and concept and is placed in such a way that visitors have to
- bend down to pick it up.
- An „exhausted“ plum cast in bronze resting on the mantelpiece.
Visitors of the exhibition were invited to drink the schnapps in uncomfortable positions, on various occasions.
Maleficium (plural: maleficia) as a Latin term, An act of witchcraft performed with the intention of causing damage
or injury; the resultant harm. In general, the term applies to any magical act intended to cause harm or death to
people or property. In relation to this work, I actually want to impose the act of causing harm to someone back on
the patriarchal and capitalist system which allowed the oppression of the female (witch hunt) to happen in the first place.
